Enterprise architecture to the rescue
Now more than ever we need enterprise architects to untangle legacy systems and processes -- and to embrace such exciting new developments as the consumerization of IT
Follow @EricKnorrTo decide which way to go, you often need to get a bird's-eye view and survey the landscape around you. This top-down perspective has always been the hallmark of enterprise architecture (EA). From a certain elevation, patterns emerge, such as how business processes and objectives connect with technology initiatives, what modifications might increase efficiency and agility, and where the potential barriers to change may lie.
In this year's InfoWorld/Forrester Enterprise Architecture Awards, six organizations stood out in their ability to use EA to look deep into business processes and develop solutions based on best practices and improved technologies that can drive the business forward.
[ Read all about the winners of the 2011 InfoWorld/Forrester Enterprise Architecture Awards. | For more on infrastructure convergence, see "What converged networking really means" by InfoWorld's Matt Prigge, and for good measure check out his private cloud Deep Dive. ]
The practice of EA is sometimes regarded as a luxury for big companies that can afford a self-improvement department. But in challenging times like these, EA is a necessity. At no other point in the history of business computing has IT been under such pressure to improve its ability to deliver while freezing or cutting operating costs. At the same time, mobile technology, cloud computing, and virtualization have fundamentally changed the nature of IT infrastructure and, in so doing, have expanded the purview of the enterprise architect.
Virtualization in particular has accelerated a fundamental shift in IT away from dedicated resources to shared infrastructure. More advanced organizations are taking this consolidation to the next phase with converged infrastructure. On the application level, a number of enterprises, including three winners of this year's Enterprise Architecture Awards -- American Express, First Data, and Singapore's Ministry of Education -- are realizing the benefits of SOA, which enables IT to assemble applications from shared best-in-class services.
