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The New Fundamentals of Enterprise Architecture: Hot Topics

Posted by Tim R on January 24, 2019

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Developments in Enterprise Architecture are clues to the directions headed by industries as a whole. Looking equally at the services adopted by large-scale organizations and the authors of their implementation strategies can predict future market positions with surprising accuracy.

Now a boardroom activity, EAs are entrusted to activate the solutions that were once only submitted in writing — and the design tools and methodologies they use to tame disruptive technology is a potent measurement of an enterprise’s potential.

So, without keeping you waiting, let’s see what characterized EA in 2020:

At a glance:

 

1. Business Capability Maps

Technology’s value in enterprises has evolved from supporting business strategies to defining business altogether. Business Capability Mapping — a strategy to fully detail and articulate the capacity, materials, and expertise required by an organization to satisfy core functions — is now a pre-requisite to executing structural changes, big and small. Business Capability Mapping is used to help organizations achieve transparency into their operations, and EAs are frequently solicited just to generate this clarity. 

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2. Microservices

Microservices is an implementation approach for Service-Oriented Architectures that are used to build flexible, independently deployable software systems. The speed at which services in a microservices architecture communicate with one another is an object of desire for enterprises worldwide. Connecting them to this better life is typically at the top of an EA’s priority list. As such, scores of cross-industry research on best practices to facilitate a microservices transformation have emerged.

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3. Modernized TOGAF

Today's agile approaches to IT management owe much of their success to the architectural standards set by TOGAF. However, the rush to digitalization in thriving modern businesses requires EAs — both new and old-school — to recognize all best practices to truly integrate networks of information, business, and technology. For this reason, TOGAF has not entirely disappeared but is rather being elevated and dispersed via products like LeanIX’s Enterprise Architecture Management Tool — a SaaS that can modernize the TOGAF framework for digital audiences while preserving its rigorous standards. 

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 4. Getting to the cloud

The pace of enterprises en route to cloud-based ecosystems accelerated even further in 2020 — a migration heavily expedited thanks to the growing consensus among EA communities on transformation best practices. Indeed, successful governance of cloud migration (to Azure or AWS or Google Cloud) has become a critical use case of EA today. “Agility”, “Flexibility”, and “Consumption-Based Pricing” are promises lauded by the technology’s vendors — each one of which executives turn to bespoke Enterprise Architecture Governance programs to make a reality.

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5. IT Architects: Knowing the differences (Technical, Solution, Information, Reference, Domain)

The modern symbiosis between business and IT has expanded job titles and created a new lexicon of responsibilities within organizations keen to digitally overhaul their workspaces. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the fields of IT Architecture — a discipline underscored by numerous subsets, each beneficial for merging IT/business for their own reasons. It may sound obvious, but actually knowing what someone does is the first step to getting a task accomplished… 

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6. Technology Obsolescence

If one digital asset in an enterprise goes kaput after its service license expires or its source provider calls it quits, so might another. This domino effect is the consequence of Technology Obsolescence — a scary and precisely modern danger that keeps C-level executives up at night. Enterprise Architecture Management — and in particular, its capacity for wide-scale application lifecycle supervision — is an effective remedy against the hidden dangers of antiquated technology. Less graphic designers than digital-waste workers, the cleaning tools have evolved for EAs — as have their combat strategies.

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7. Blockchain

Is Blockchain still a thing? Though McKinsey recently reported that the technology is precariously stuck in arrested development, enterprises are pre-emptively bolstering IT infrastructures to prepare themselves in the off-chance that cryptocurrency exchanges surpass traditional payments systems. How has EA helped out?

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8. DevOps

DevOps (Development + Operations) practices are designed to unify software development and software operations. Employing multidisciplinary teams, the DevOps movement has conquered the IT world by enabling automation, quick software integration and testing, and improving deployment frequency to generate immediate benefits to organizations.

Transforming traditional workspaces into well-oiled DevOps environments is both a logistical and cultural undertaking requiring concerted EA efforts. In the search for the magic formula to seamlessly connect these two worlds, DevOps has produced a litany of misinformation and conflicting approaches. For EAs, securing the right guidance is almost as tough as the mission itself. 

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 9. Certificates

Enterprise architects (unlike blog writers) can’t talk out of their hat when discussing technology. Outfitting IT and business landscapes in intelligent manners requires dedicated research — the types of which must be learned in school. Like, actual school. Whether related to systems thinking, project management skills, IT governance and operation, or hardware and software knowledge, certification programs committed to enriching EA professionals are multiplying. 

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10. GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulation that the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission use to strengthen and unify data protection for all individuals within the European Union. The main purpose of the GDPR is to provide a set of standardized data protection laws to protect the "Personally Identifiable Information" of EU citizens. A mixed blessing, the discipline of Enterprise Architecture has seen a great proliferation since GDPR came into being. So, how much pressure is being put on EAs to rescue their companies from compliance nightmares?

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