Impact of Cloud Computing on Enterprise Architecture
What impact will Cloud Computing have on your enterprise architecture? Why should you care? In this podcast David Bressler, SOA Evangelist at Progress Software, presents his thoughts on how Cloud Computing will make it easier for you to get business-critical information to your consumers. As applications become more distributed, the data can often become muddled. During this podcast, David allows you to imagine what the impact would be if you could easily bring information from multiple data sources into the cloud, present it contextually, and then use it in the best way possible.
A Framework for Enterprise Architectures
Arthur Cole: To say that establishing a cohesive enterprise architecture is complicated is like saying the Titanic was a really big ship. More often than not, architectures tend to evolve along vendor-driven parameters that may or may not be in the best interests of the enterprise. The Open Group is looking to change that with a new framework designed to guide enterprises into more effective architectural planning. The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) was originally established in 1995 in conjunction with U.S. Department of Defense. It seeks to create a detailed method and set of supporting tools for enterprise architecture development with an eye toward streamlining IT operations, producing a better return on investment and simplifying the hardware and software procurement process. The latest version of the document (Ver. 9.0) spells out four types of architectures that modern enterprises typically employ. The Business Architecture covers things like strategy, governance and key business processes. The Data Architecture describes logical and physical assets and management tools. The Application Architecture lays out applications and their relationships to core business processes. The Technology Architecture establishes the hardware and software needed to support data and application services, such as IT infrastructure, middleware, networks and communications elements.
EA Frameworks: Pros and Cons ? Inventory and Insights
A lot of attention - in the media, on EA-oriented websites, at conferences, and in the minds of enterprise architects themselves - is devoted to EA frameworks. What are they? Should I use one? If so, which one? What do I use it for? It's time to stop the questions and figure out once and for all - what are they good for? EAdirections' approach to Enterprise Architecture is framework-agnostic - that is to say, we can tailor the approach to include the use of a framework that fits your needs, or we can help you be effective without one. However, that is not to say that we think frameworks are useless. On the contrary, if you understand the strengths and background of a particular EA framework, it can be a valuable aid.
Applying Architecture and Ontology to the Splitting and Allying of Enterprises
Martin Op 't Land. PhD-thesis, 2008. Organizations increasingly split off parts and start cooperating with those parts, for instance in Shared Service Centers or by using in- or outsourcing. What is the right spot and way for finding the organization split? And on what subjects should organizations agree to cooperate effectively across the organization split? To find managerial handles for this problem, we applied action research to four large real-life case-studies in which ontology and architecture were used. This resulted in an instrument for supporting organization splitting, allying and post-merger integration, consisting of (1) organization construction rules, (2) algorithms for calculating a plausible organization splitting proposal, (3) a method for finding subjects for contracting split organizations, and (4) a real-life tested combination of all this in a way of working with (5) a known Return On Modeling Effort (ROME). Future research should make this instrument more broadly applicable, more thoroughly tested and delivering faster decision-support, and it should clarify the mutual dependency of organization splitting versus ICT splitting.
Salamander MooD
Salamander's MooD Technology combines the ability to build architectures, define and manage change programmes, increase performance and create business intelligence solutions - all based on a common Enterprise Business Model.
Butler Group: Enterprise Architecture must take a leadership role in IT strategy and service delivery
Attempts to align IT strategy with an abstract business vision or strategy are doomed to failure according Butler Group, Europe's leading IT research and advisory organisation. In its latest report, "IT Strategy and Architecture - Creating an Enterprise Model to Support IT Strategic Planning", Butler Group says that in order to improve competitiveness, organisations must urgently address the growing dislocation between the business requirements and IT deliverables. This, it says, is directly impacting the enterprise's ability to make quick, accurate decisions and is causing slow implementation of the IT strategy. The gap between IT capability and business needs cannot be allowed to continue. Instead, the adoption of an end-to-end architectural approach and the development of an enterprise model can help with IT strategy planning and execution.
Get ready to show your EA work
FCW, September 29, 2008:
In future assessments, OMB will ask agencies to tie enterprise architecture to performance improvements. Enterprise architecture has come a long way in the federal government - so far that the Office of Management and Budget's top architecture official believes it's time to start holding agencies to a higher standard. The assessment framework that OMB has been using to evaluate agencies' architecture office is based on basic achievements, said Kshmendra Paul, chief architect at OMB's Office of E-government and Information Technology. Agencies score high simply by taking early steps toward developing an architecture and using it. In the second quarter of fiscal 2008, 25 of the 27 agencies that OMB tracks had done enough to receive a green score, the highest level on the score card. So now OMB plans to start applying more exacting standards.
Enterprise Architecture Demystified
David Aden, Government Technology: For many agency heads or department managers, any mention of "Enterprise Architecture" (EA) causes emotional reactions ranging from fear to outright antagonism. Often EA has come to mean "yet another IT project and expense which I don't have time for and from which I won't see any tangible results." For others, it is simply a checkbox that must be filled to get the money needed to get real work done. But what is Enterprise Architecture (EA) really? And who is it intended to benefit?
The Tao of architecture
Michael Daconta: Organizational problems often masquerade as a shifting set of symptoms. That can lead to a proverbial blind men and the elephant situation in which well-intentioned parties seek to solve a problem from different perspectives and thus offer widely differing solutions. In information technology, I have seen that approach result in dueling architectures. To end such confusion requires an understanding of the true nature, or tao, of architecture. Most discussions of IT architecture quickly become tangled in a plethora of abstractions and frameworks: enterprise architecture, segment architecture, system architecture, solution architecture, software architecture, technical architecture, service architecture, federal enterprise architecture (FEA), Department of Defense Architecture Framework, The Open Group Architecture Framework, and on and on. Adding to this confusion are those silver-tongued consultants who offer architectural snake oil to cure whatever ails you. Help!