Enterprise Architect or Enterprising Architect: Will the Cloud disrupt traditional pa

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Enterprise Architecture is all about tapping synergies
across the enterprise - in a structured and consistent manner. Goes without
saying that different forms and flavors of EA exist dependent upon the starting
point, organizational culture or operating model. Forrester characterizes EA
based on the dimensions of orientation (Business or Technology) and focus
(Project or Strategy) [see: Characterizing EA Teams and their challenges.] But there is one thing in common
across all types of EA, and that is - having a shared enterprise-wide
understanding of what needs to be done for the larger good of the company - and
have different parts of the enterprise converge towards that vision and architecture.





And the mechanisms EA has traditionally used to driveconsistency and shared values are - reference architectures, standards (for products, tools, canonicalmodels etc.), architecture principles and so on, which are adhered to by theimplementation projects and enforced at multiple levels using governanceprocesses and gating techniques.



So why is the Cloud paradigm such a big deal? Well forstarters, it threatens the whole premise of IT sourcing and decision making - wherebusinesses, at least theoretically, can now bypass corporate IT shopscompletely to source their applications, infrastructure and platforms fromexternal providers - in a cost-effective on-demand basis.



On a less dramatic level, it shifts the focus from choosingand deciding about products or architectures to instead being concerned aboutservices - regardless of the underlying products or tools enabling the services- and without having to worry about managing or maintaining those services(unlike in the case of say SOA). But it doesn't stop there - it also introducesinteresting twists to key EA processes.



For example, zooming in on one process - the classic SoftwareDevelopment Life Cycle (SDLC), some of the nuances that could get introduced atvarious stages of the process with the Cloud option are:



- Genesis: Traditionally, the EA team wouldcollaborate with the business to understand and scope the needs - and align itwith the enterprise architecture (bringing to bear the existing technologicalcapabilities that can satisfy those needs thereby promoting sharing or reuse orbuilding new ones if needed). However, given its relatively low barrier to entry, in thescenarios where the Business is not sure of the viability of their proposal,they can go straight to the Cloud instead to "experiment a bit" before solidifyingtheir requirements - which could be a path of no return..



- Approval: Instead of now having to providestandardized ROI or cost-benefit analysis justifying the products that need tobe bought or charge-backs that need to be agreed upon upfront for shared assets,the Business can provide operational expenditure outlines and go out to theCloud to source their requirements. No CapEx sticker shock, no new productintroduction training line item expenditures, no gnarly charge-back agreementsbetween Business Units - in short, no need to conform to existingenterprise-wide Reference Architectures to meet individual project needs.



- Development & Deployment: The development anddeployment teams would now be sourcing from and conforming to the Cloud API andservices - without the EA team becoming a cop enforcing the referencearchitectures or corporate standards at various checkpoints. With overarching cross-projectoversight not relevant anymore, each project would tend to work in its own Clouddevelopment sandbox - party engendered by the partitioning paradigm of theCloud itself..



- Operations & Maintenance: Barring someexceptions, traditionally the EA teams have not been hugely relevant to the Opsside of the house - but with the Cloud, even that seems to be waning. The Cloudproviders will furnish the relevant tools for management and reporting - and takeaway the onerous tasks of patch management version upgrades, HA/DR and thelike. What value will the EA add here?



Given that the entire notion of enterprise architecture isbased on the premise that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, andthat there are far greater cost or agility or innovation options when thearchitecture is optimized for the enterprise as opposed to optimized for apoint solution or a business segment, it appears that the Cloud paradigm isparadoxical to enterprise architecture.



With each Business Unit inexorable being pulled to its own"point" Cloud, will EA go from dealing with Business silos to managing Cloudsilos? Or is the Cloud going to marginalize Enterprise Architecture? How canthe traditional EA become more enterprising to embrace the Cloud and evolveit's processes and models to prevent fragmentation and segregations of Cloudsourcing solutions?



Would like to hearyour thoughts and explore the options in the next posts.



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