Who will be the vendors of the Next Generation Internet?

Usually when a paradigm as big as this happens there is an opportunity for vendors to be dethroned and new vendor to gain prominence. I think that in the next couple of years there will be some interesting jockeying for position. It is clear already that certain vendors are starting to take the lead. Vendors like Google and Yahoo are leading the way as thinkers of what you can do with the Internet. They don't have all of the overhead that traditional vendors or the baggage that would weigh them down.

The paradigm shift is also an opportunity for venture capital to make a big rebirth and recover from the bubble burst of just a few years ago. This is different then the last time around for venture capital. Companies that are forming now are small with big new innovative ideas that are being watched as soon as they start development. As soon as somebody sees an inkling of value they are bought up. Just look at what Google and Yahoo have been doing for the last 6 months.

So what happens to the big boys (Microsoft, Sun, IBM, etc.) ? That is a good question which I think is being discussed by strategic planners at all of these companies.