Hardware vendors ruled enterprise computing from the 1960s through the 1990s, and then software vendors took the lead, writes Ed Sperling in a column at Forbes. But who leads the pack going forward is difficult to say because the rules of the game are in such a state of flux.

The recent shuffling of executives at Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) illustrate the changing dymanic, Sperling writes, but they do not necessarily give one company a leg up going forward. It is hard to predict the demands of corporate customers, and it is hard for a vendor to know exactly who its competitors are.

"[T]he corporate enterprise is no longer just an aggregation of servers and software and the services needed to make them all work together," Sperling writes. "It is evolving into a fractious world with myriad small and large players and as many computing strategies as there are customers."

Vendors are left unsure which direction to head, and some are inching into unfamiliar territory. "HP's recent purchases of 3Par and Palm show just how far afield vendors are willing to stray," Sperling writes. "In some cases, the play will be for better integration, which is the ostensible reason that Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) bought Sun. In others, it will be just the opposite, breaking down packages into less expensive and sometimes disposable pieces."

The best example, perhaps, is IBM's plan to launch a video game next week. Go figure.

For more:
- see Ed Sperling's column at Forbes

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