Dec

30

The Infosys Enterprise Architecture Survey 2007 Results

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Infosys have published the results of their Enterprise Architecture Survey 2007 which is always an interesting read.

 

The key findings..

  • EA is emerging as a strategic tool at the corporate level, and moving outside the realm of IT
  • EA is becoming more professional through the use of standardized, well-defined processes and tools;
  • EA Governance, in particular its marketing and communications approach, needs to be improved.

 

The survey also shows that the key expectations from EA are business agility, IT-business alignment and portfolio simplification.

EA has gained acceptance as an important tool for corporate decision making. This is apparent from its role in strategic planning and its reporting lines. It is a key component of IT governance.

As EA recognizes its responsibility for objectives outside IT, business architecture becomes more important. However, application and technical architecture still prevail and continue to be key deliverables.

Marketing and communications is crucial when influencing a large organization; incidentally, this is not exactly the strength of many architects. The lack of a structured multi-channel communication strategy results in a serious awareness gap concerning the architecture vision.

The lack of appropriate metrics also makes it difficult to manage the IT assets of the organization as a portfolio. As most organizations do not penalize non-adherence to architecture, the architect’s task becomes a ‘battle against windmills’.

Our findings indicate that EA teams need to change. They need to strengthen their business level capabilities, build a consistent body of knowledge and the best practices of a mature profession, and improve their skills in influencing the organization.

 

Some of the highlights from the research for was the following findings:

 

EA Objectives and Benefits

The primary objective of enterprise architecture is business agility…

"Agility is the objective of the day – not just for IT, but for the entire organization. The most cited objective of EA is flexibility of business and processes to enable the enterprise to stay competitive."

 

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EA Focus Areas

 

"With agility and flexibility being the key objectives of EA, enterprise architects are focusing on service-orientation and integration. Close to 80% of the survey participants listed this area as critical” or “high” in terms of significance."

 

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EA Deliverables

 

"Even though EA teams are engaged in strategic planning efforts, a key expectation is to govern the enterprise technology landscape. Therefore, Enterprise Technology Standards, Technology Roadmaps and IT Strategy continue to be the three most common deliverables of EA teams."

 

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EA Frameworks and Processes

Infosys analysed the adoption of three types of architecture frameworks:

  • Generic Enterprise Architecture Frameworks, such as TOGAF, Zachman, FEAF and DODAF
  • Industry frameworks such as eTOM, Acord, SAGA and CIMOSA
  • Generic IT management frameworks such as ITIL and COBIT.

We found that framework adoption has increased significantly; with almost 70% using one or the other framework. Architecture frameworks have been adopted by 55% of the respondents’ organizations and almost all leverage industry standards. This is speedy progress compared to the 16% in our last survey.

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You can download the comprehensive Infosys 2007 Enterprise Architecture Survey here.

 

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Oct

10

Gartner’s top 10 strategic technologies for 2008

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Computerworld has published "Gartner’s top 10 strategic technologies for 2008" describing a "strategic technology" as a technology:

"… that may have an impact on a business. And impact could mean driving an investment or posing a threat…. If your competitors adopt one of these technologies does that put you at a competitive disadvantage?"

Gartner’s list is as follows…..

  1. Green IT. This is a path that more and more companies are taking as a socially responsible strategy. A green approach is multifaceted and can affect data center operations in a number of ways, such as moving workloads based on energy efficiency and using the most power-inefficient servers only at times of peak usage, said Carl Claunch, an analyst….. But data centers also face the threat of regulatory action to curb power usage.
  2. Unified communications. The move to unified communications systems is happening as the world shifts from analog to digital over IP networks. But it’s not just the obvious things that will converge, such as telephony and messaging. Companies may make security videos part of this convergence, which may give businesses, for instance, new ways to analyze a retail outlet’s traffic patterns.
  3. Business process management. This is not a technology, its a way of using technologies to enable companies to simulate, model and design the processes that run their businesses. A key trend is the evolution of the business process management suite, Cearley said. This may include, model-driven development, content and document management, collaboration capabilities, system connectivity, business intelligence activity monitoring and management, rules and systems management.
  4. Metadata management. This is becoming important as companies integrate data — for instance, customer and product data and warehouse data.
  5. Virtualization. Virtualization technology is critical, but not just for consolidation; it also offers a way to mirror production systems for disaster recovery.
  6. Mashups. Mashup tools allow users to take things from multiple Web sites and combine them together to create a Web-centric composite application. "You want to start building mashability into everything you do," Cearley said.
  7. The Web platform. This is the model for services in the future. An example, said Cearley, is the cloud computing announcement this week by Google Inc. and IBM, which are jointly offering a platform for use by universities for application development initiatives, including Web 2.0 projects. "Put this on your radar screen," he said.
  8. Computing fabric. A server design that is still a work in progress, computing fabric involves treating memory, processors and I/O cards as a pooled resource instead of a fixed arrangement. Blade servers allow you to do some of this pooling with I/O, Claunch said. "Be aware of this, because blades are not the final step," he said.
  9. Real World Web. This is the name of the computing experience made possible by ubiquitous access to networks of even-increasing bandwidth via mobile technologies. Thanks to the Real World Web, users can have ready access to all kinds of information, including travel information or the location of a jar of pickles in a grocery store.
  10. Social software. Social software includes podcasts, blogs and wikis — anything that fosters the development of social networks.

 

This list is worth considering as part of your 2008 - 2010 Strategic Plans.

 

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