Simply loved the article for giving a perspective on history.
However I feel that software system integration is different from big data.
I think web services solve this problem enabling say a shopping website to talk to your bank and so on. If that can communicate, so do disparate business systems.
But I don't see how they fit under big data..
All said., this is a brilliant article.
I created an account with register(normally I don't) only for writing this comment.
Keep up the good work.