Australian Architecture Forum - Enterprise Architecture and Cloud Computing

There has been alot of traffic and discussion regarding cloud computing over the recent months, and at the Australian Architecture Forum (AAF) event in August - Tim Rubin facilitated an Open Space Workshop that aimed to cover some of the main discussion areas:

• Impact of the Cloud on EA Agenda
• What is Cloud Computing?
  
• Why should Enterprise Architecture care?

Cloud Computing is often characterized by: Virtualized computing resources, Multi-tenancy, limitless capacity/scalability, Self-service, Dynamic provisioning, Pay-for-use pricing.

Much of the discussion generated by the attendees during the open space session was around some of the following points:

1. When Cloud Computing may be a fit - particularly around the profiles of applications, security and data, the sorts of commercial models that need to be considered and discussion around Infrastructure vs Application as a service models
2. How Cloud Computing differs from “old” approaches - eg ASP and Outsourcing etc
3. Does IT Matter - the diminishing role of the datacentre support team and impact on ongoing operation

The more that I delve into the topic of cloud computing, the more that I ask is

does cloud computing = outsourcing 2.0?

AAF - Enterprise Architecture and Cloud Computing

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Australian Architecture Forum - Pragmatic Enterprise Architecture

In August, Tim Rubin and I ran a couple of the open space breakout sessions as Part of the Australian Architecture Forum in both Melbourne and Sydney. The first being around Pragmatic Enterprise Architect, the second regarding Cloud Computing. Not surprising the interest and the inter-relationship between the 2 topics gathered alot of interest and open discussion.

In Pragmatic Enterprise Architecture, I positioned a quote that I like from Gartner, where they suggest that
Just Enough models should be created Just In Time to address the specific (Business Driven Requirements) - Gartner 2005

exploring this further, a lot of time can be spent building artifacts that have little or no impact on business outcome and as such we need to think carefully about how much is built out. I suggested the following 6 steps

1. Identify the Business Strategy and Objective
   
2. Establish an EA program/requirement
3. Define the "Future State" Architecture (Don't spend too much time dwelling and documenting the past)
   
4. Define the EA Roadmap (Linked to business benefits)
5. Establish EA Governance (ensuring measurement and attainment of business priorities)

The key to Enterprise Architecture is not the volume or the number of artifacts that you create, but the pragmatism and ability to action them!

Pragmatic Enterprise Architecture

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Light Bulb Interview - David Preiss - Part 1

Welcome to the latest Light Bulb Effect interview. In this series I will be interviewing a number of influential Enterprise Architect's and IT strategists focused around 3 key areas:

1. Major Trends in EA
2. Working in the New Business Climate
3. Hot Topics for EA

This interview is with David Preiss - Head of IT Strategy & Architecture for Superpartners. David is a well respected member of the Architecture and IT Strategy community having worked in a number of industries including Financial Services, Defence and Telecommunications. The interview will be posted over 3 parts and I thank David for agreeing to take part and insightful responses which are his personal opinions and not necessarily the views of Superpartners.

Part 1 - Trends in EA and IT

MC: What do you see as the role of Enterprise Architecture as related to Business Strategy?

DP: Enterprise Architecture should provide the alignment and common language between business strategy and the planning of introducing, maintaining and retiring of enterprise IT assets.

MC: What is the role of Architecture Governance?

DP: Architecture Governance has three main functions:

1. Ensure that IT projects (and any other initiatives) are implemented in line with Enterprise IT standards and policies
2. Ensure that IT projects implement the architecture that they planned to implement during planning/business case
3. Monitor and report the success (or otherwise) of the architecture to meet the benefits qualified and quantified in the business case

MC: What are the Trends in Enterprise Systems?
DP: Consolidation is always on the agenda and will continue to be. I think there may well be a swing back towards having fewer, large applications in the enterprise and standardizing on one or two platforms rather than buying the “best of breed” in every category and ending up with umpteen different solutions from different vendors. The last ten years of the “best of breed” approach has not necessarily served all enterprises well with cost creep evident in application maintenance, hardware/software maintenance, vendor management, etc. Speed to market has been compromised as application architectures have become increasingly more complex over time.

Still a heavy focus on package solutions but organizations will look to put in “vanilla” solutions, with no customization – simplifying implementation and protecting the ever-important upgrade path. Vendor packages which are not truly configurable (parameterized)/extendable and require custom coding changes to the core will not be widely adopted.

MC: Trends in Infrastructure?
DP: Nothing that new here.

• Virtualization is a key trend. Managed Services vendors will need to be more flexible in their pricing arrangements as today cost savings of virtualization are diminished by a fee/logical VM model. Virtual Networks next.
• Green IT. Much more pressure will be put on organizations to reduce power consumption/carbon footprint, recycle etc.
• Cloud infrastructure will continue to develop but many companies are taking a watch and see approach – especially financial services where privacy and security of personal data is paramount.
• Telepresence – 3D virtual meeting rooms are of such a high quality now that they will replace the need for much interstate/international business travel.
• Mobility – The bandwidth/coverage we have in Australia now from Telstra on their network is the best in the world. This is going to mean that applications can always be “online”. Applications which go offline when laptops are removed from the physical LAN (and the synchronization issues that later occur with offline transactions) will become less and less common which will be a major advance for business processes across all industries.
  

MC: How about trends in Software/Hardware?
DP: As above.

MC: Networking and Telecommunications?
DP: As above.

End of Part 1

Light Bulb Interview Series - Jeff Kennedy - Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of the the interview with Jeff Kennedy - from the University of Auckland. The 2009 Light Bulb Effect interview series will cover a number of influential Enterprise Architect's focused around 3 key areas:

1. Major Trends in EA - Posted 11-March
   
2. Working in the New Business Climate
3. Hot Topics for EA

Light Bulb Effect Interview
Part 2 - Working in the New Business Climate

MC: A lot has been discussed regarding the new business climate how do you think today's Enterprise Architect needs to adapt?
JK: Positioned as it is between the firmaments and the business, a solid Enterprise Architecture practice has become essential for businesses hoping to survive the tough new business climate. Bear in mind that this tough new business climate is going to start being alleviated by regrowth sometime in the next year or two. Under these conditions, best practice, modern, lean, consultancy-based, framework-light Enterprise Architecture has become completely non-discretionary because assisting enterprises to govern innovation, achieve reuse, promote solution patterns, and exploit new technologies is completely front and centre.

MC: So in the new economy how do organisations need to adapt?
JK: Percentagewise, most organisations spend relatively little on information technology when compared with the cost of labour, the cost of advertising, and the cost of sustaining the supply chain. Here, too, Enterprise Architecture has a huge role to play in identifying opportunities for cost optimisation and in exposing data, logic, and process from existing application assets. Enterprise Architects can also add considerable value in non-traditional domains, simply by bringing an architectural approach to understanding business opportunities.

MC: What considerations need to be made between CAPEX vs. OPEX when designing solutions?
JK: The CAPEX-vs-OPEX distinction is seriously challenged by the sensible rise of agile and iterative delivery methodologies over the acquiescence of forty-year-old waterfall-based methodologies. Waterfall-based delivery of business functionality constantly confuses the essential difference between requests for new features, bug-fixes, and business-as-usual maintenance. This confusion renders the CAPEX-vs-OPEX split meaningless in traditional waterfall-based delivery methodologies. Where there is a true OPEX payload carried by new business functionality (e.g., in association with maintenance-and-support agreements with vendors, or where a new solution requires additional operational staffing) then the OPEX clearly belongs. However, in an environment that is increasingly rooted in the principles of Service-Oriented Architecture, the concepts of reuse are very challenging to traditional models of project funding. Funding from a build-for-change-and-reusability perspective is conceptually very difficult to fund from a build-for-forever-and-single-beneficiary perspective.

MC: What advice would you give to a new IT graduate entering the industry in 2009?
JK: Get started as soon as possible, put your hand up for challenging work, think about the long term, and focus on being the best person there is at being who you are (else somebody else will come along and do a better job of being who you are, and you will be replaced). Most every commentator is offering 2009 as a hard and difficult year, but from the perspective of a new graduate coming into the industry at this time it is a brilliant opportunity-laden year for establishing a solid reputation and consolidating the skills earned through tertiary training.

MC: What skill sets should a new IT Graduate focus on?
JK: The number-one skills to focus on are not necessarily pure technical skills, but are instead based around problem-solving, qualities of communication, and a hunger to learn. Within the IT industry it is unusual to find a job that exercises one's training directly. It's much more important to have solid techniques for analysis, for creating and following patterns, and for designing and coding in increasingly well-socialised and increasing collaborative styles. Innovation, courage, and being full-architecture-stack capable provide the basis for an excellent career.

MC: What changes have you noticed in the IT Eco-system over the last 5 years?
JK: The rise of Service-Oriented Architecture and the rise of virtualisation are the greatest forces of change that have affected the industry in the last five years. The massive social networks based a, round platforms like Twitter and MySpace and the rise of mash-ups and their appearance in the enterprise also offer transformational opportunities.

MC: What changes do you envisage over the next 5 years?
JK: In the next five years there will be massive uptake in and improved models for local-to-the-enterprise and on-demand cloud-based computing. At all levels of the architecture stack there will be much-increased federation, with widely-supported formally-adopted industry standards. Notions of user-centric identity will become much more real, and much more.

End of Part 2.

Once again thank you Jeff. Keep an eye out over the coming days for Part 3: Hot Topics in EA soon...

Cloud/Grid/Utility Computing

I was reading Micheal Specht's blog Cloud/Grid/Utility Computing what is it & must you have it? and It got me thinking, it is true that the various buzzwords that the industry offers up can sometimes be confusing, however, maybe it would help if we boil it down to bare essentials.

When Micheal and I caught up recently we had a long discussion that centered around these decisions being horses for courses - what is the best architecture for your application? Try to see through the buzzwords - whether it be cloud, utility, or SaaS or whatever. What is the underlying architecture and most importantly can it deliver for your respective application on the following criteria to the degree that you need:

1. Performance
2. Business Continuity (i.e., back-up and recovery)
3. Security, privacy and compliance
4. Service Level Agreements
5. Business Integration and processes
6. Affordability

That is what is important. What the solution is ultimately called is not important as long as you are getting the computing resources you need, when you need them at a price point that suits.