I'm a great believer in the move towards "utility" computing - including concepts such as SaaS, HaaS, utility web services etc.
I'm a simple guy and most things in my experience break down into CODB(Cost of doing business), CA(Competitive Advantage) or somewhere in between (Transitional) - of course excluding that which is destined for the heap.
There has been some interesting moves in this area SalesForce AppExchange , Amazon storage service and Google Base for example, and plenty of discussion.
If you haven't read "Does IT matter?" I would recommend it, also it's worth taking a look at Carr's blog and at this article on why investing in technology change can lead to economic pain