As you have no doubt been hearing (at least in bits and pieces), there's a big move within the networks of your enterprise customers towards application -aware switching and networking. Application switching is not happening as one big paradigm-shifting overnight revolution, but it is revolutionary, and it is coming towards as a series of smaller steps forward.

The first place we are seeing application switching enter the market is in the realm of XML. XML will soon become ubiquitous in the enterprise for no other reason than the fact that the next iteration of Microsoft Office will rely upon XML as a file format - moving away from today's ".ppt" , ".xls" and ".doc" formats. XML is already increasingly common for other enterprise applications, and particularly whenever a Web-based application or Web service touches the enterprise (not to mention the rise of XML-based syndication feeds for all sorts of new other data services.

Microsoft is not the only enterprise vendor getting serious about XML. Intel, for example, just placed a bet on XML and the importance of XML- and application-awareness when it purchased XML appliance vendor, Sarvega . All of a sudden the leading desktop and server vendor - not to mention a primary vendor of network processors - is bringing XML into its software fold. Intel has the reach to bring XML-awareness to just about all levels of the network - just as Centrino has helped spread 802.11, and as Intel’s WiMAX efforts are working to boost that technology.

Independent vendors of XML "switches," like DataPower, are building (and selling to enterprise customers) a whole range of XML acceleration, security and switching devices. Look at the customer lists of some of the independent XML appliance vendors to get an idea of the scale and scope of deployments that are in production now in a variety of IT-centric enterprises (like many major financial houses).

And perhaps most importantly, Cisco's launch of the application-oriented networking (AON) platform earlier this summer put the biggest and most important networking vendor for enterprises firmly on the side of XML (any application, really) switching in the enterprise – and no doubt in the service provider's network as well.

If application switching is coming, what's the impact for a carrier? What the heck does an XML file format on a enterprise user's PC really mean to a service provider anyway?