From Business Strategies to
Infrastructure Planning:
The Challenges of Enterprise
Technology Architects
A Mission Impossible?
•
The enterprise technology architect dilemma: Is it
really possible to accommodate the expectations of all
stakeholders?
"Business": We want all our requirements covered — at an acceptable price!
CIO: I want to have a payback from our technology architecture efforts — and not just "shelfware"! CFO: We need to achieve €10 million in
savings from technology consolidation!
Vendors: Stay ahead in competition by using our new product! "Experts": What are our technology architecture standards? Why isn't it possible to still use our legacy platform?
Business-IT alignment supported by best practices in
• Business architecture • Information architecture • Technology architecture • Solution architecture Business Strategy • Environmental forces • Business goals • Business policy • Resource allocation Implementation • Business processes • Information structures • Application systems • Technical platforms • Organizational structureThe Answer
Key Issues
1.
How do you achieve a proper
business-IT alignment?
•
Leaving the ivory tower2.
When developing technology
architectures, how do you find a
sound balance between effort
and output?
•
Preventing overengineering3.
What is the power of a
methodology-based approach?
Leaving the Ivory Tower
"I think you should be more explicit here in Step 2."
•
Involve all stakeholders in a joint
exercise in creating traceable,
auditable links from business
strategies to enterprise
technology scenarios
- Paradigm shift: From "bottom-up" to "top-down"
•
Become the "facilitator" rather
than being "just the technologist"
- Paradigm shift: From "excusing
technology problems" to "explaining the impact of technologies"
Analyze the Business Context
What's in the Business Context?
•
A common requirements vision (CRV): A process for documenting and capturing:- The business strategies of the enterprise - The impact of environmental factors on the
strategies of the enterprise
- The implications of the business strategy and environmental factors
•
A functional model of the business with high-level business requirements•
A set of enterprise architecture principles- Defining how the future-state architecture should be designed to best support the business strategy Business strategy Competitive landscape Regulatory concerns Technology trends Market trends Customer expectations Possible disruptions
Develop the Common Requirements Vision
•
Discussing, capturing and
documenting:
- A set of enterprise business strategies
- A set of common strategic requirements derived
from enterprise
business strategies
- The effect of environmental trends on the enterprise
•
Preparing the resulting
CRV document
CRV Hierarchy
Environmental Trends Enterprise Business Strategies Business Change Requirements Business Information Requirements Information Technology Requirements Business Solution Requirements ESA ETA EIA EBADeriving Architecture Principles
From Strategies
•
Clearly and demonstrably derived from the
business strategy
Business Strategy
To this point, we have been a company with four completely
independent lines of business, which have operated autonomously, on occasion competing for the same clients and business.
We will now be "one company," sharing customer information and leveraging synergies across the group.
Architecture Principle
The architecture must support sharing of customer information across lines of business. Product information can be maintained individually.
Preventing Overengineering
Keep it simple, just-enough
architecture development
•
Don't target a full enterprise technology architecture (ETA) in the first iteration־ Reduced technology scope (selected domains)
־ Reduced geographical scope
•
No full-size current-state inventory־ Reduced set of important attributes per technology asset to be considered
•
Liaise with an important business initiative־ Reduced business process scope ־ Reduced information and data scope
Do not "reinvent the wheel"
•
Use ETA pattern and service models in addition to established taxonomies,Enterprise Technology Architecture
Patterns
Transact Patterns Publish Patterns Collaborate Patterns
1-Tier Transact
2-Tier Transact
3/N-Tier Transact
Client/Server Publish Real-Time Collaborate
Web Publish Store-and-Forward Collaborate
Structured Collaborate Stream Publish Rows (SQL) Requests Server Rows (SQL) Audio Video Stream Files Server
:
Rows (SQL) Documents, Files App/Data Server Documents, Files Text, Audio, VideoStream Files, Rows Pages Web Server Screens and Keystrokes Client Client Client Data Server Server Data Server Data Server Data Server Data Server Server Client Client Client Client Client Client Client Client Data Server Client
Enterprise Technology Architecture
Taxonomy
•
Structuring the technology infrastructure
Security Application Technology Data Management Technology Collaboration and Electronic Workplace System Management Integration Technology
Platforms and Storage
Use Road Maps on Timelines to Relate
Current-State to Future-State Content
Mainstream Standards Emerging Standards Containment Targets Retirement Targets Baseline Environment Tactical Deployment Strategic Direction Future Intermediate Current
Exit From Environment
Enter the Environment
Rejected Trends and Technology
CASE STUDY MATERIAL
Modeling Based on the Business Context
Development of a Technology Architecture Blueprint
•
The client: An IT service provider within the financial servicesindustry (FSI)
•
Objectives: To develop a blueprint outlining the technology standards within selected domains•
Requirements and principles were identified based on the business context•
Project duration: 3 months•
Example: Application server brickEnvironmental Trends Business Strategy Closing the Gap Future-State Architecture Current-State Architecture Govern and Manage
Or g a niz e A rc h it e c tur e Effort Or g a niz e A rc h it e c tur e Effort Architecting Architecting Develop Requirements Develop Requirements Develop Principles Develop Principles Develop Models Develop Models Document Document Approach:
Gartner's Enterprise Architecture Methodology and
Understand Trends
and Develop Conceptual Architecture
CASE STUDY MATERIAL
Application Server Brick
•
Trends
- Increasing importance of "open source" technology within the application and Web
server domain
- Emerging trends: Event-driven application platforms,
grid-based application platforms
•
Conceptual architecture
- Software architecture design requires the deployment of the "N-Tier Transaction" pattern - Overall enterprise technology
architecture design DBMS Servers Web Servers Browsers App. Servers Load Balancing Storage Network Firewall Network Scale Up Scale Out Requests
Browser ServerWeb
Pages Rows (SQL)
App.
CASE STUDY MATERIAL
Identify Relevant
Requirements and Principles
Application Server Brick
•
Logical architecture
- Promote usage of open-source products whenever appropriate - Prevent vendor lock-in
- Deploy robust "state-of-the-art" technology
- Provide adequate performance, availability and reliability while ensuring high security standards
- Allow for cost-efficient and simple administration and maintenance - Provide integration with system management tools
- Support common data interchange standards - Promote reuse and optimized interoperability - Ensure horizontal server scalability ("scale out")
CASE STUDY MATERIAL
Prepare the Evaluation
Application Server Brick
•
Determine the functional characteristic for the evaluation
- Execution container, service containers and programming model - User interface (UI) capability
- Coding and life cycle management - Orchestration
•
Select possible products/vendors
- Gartner "Magic Quadrant for Application Infrastructure for New Service-Oriented
CASE STUDY MATERIAL
Evaluate Products/Vendors
Excellent Good Medium Low Poor•
How well are the architecture requirements covered?•
How strong is the compliance with the architecture principles?Application Server Brick Evaluated Scenarios
Main Criteria Product 1Vendor 1 Vendor 2Product 2 Vendor 3Product 3 Vendor 4Product 4 Vendor 5Product 5
ARCHITECTURE REQUIREMENTS - Modular and interoperable product offerings - Flexible deployment of infrastructure components - Ensure appropriate performance (and bandwidth) - Enterprisewide integrated collaboration
- Stack conformity
ARCHITECTURE PRINCIPLES - Simplicity and transparency of architecture - Harmonized and standardized solutions - Minimization of dependencies
- Maintenance and level of automation - Innovation and investment security
CASE STUDY MATERIAL
Communicate
Tactical Deployment
Use SOA/Web services to isolate applications from the underlying platform
technology.
Strategic Direction
Track emerging open-source solutions for application servers, and review potential application.
Current
Two Years
Five Years
Implications and Dependencies
Criteria for platform selection should align with those used for the selection of component model/programming language.
Baseline
List all current installations with basic counts, if simple.
Mainstream Standards Product B Retirement Targets Product A Containment Targets Product C Emerging Trends Product D Product E
