It is no surprise that many IT organizations are struggling to implement enterprise solutions in the cloud. After all, we have seen IT struggle for decades with many “new” initiatives like SOA, ERP implementations, Enterprise Architecture, etc. The following list captures what I call cloud computing worst practices. Many of these items on the list are the same mistakes that IT has been making for decades while others are... Read More
Struggling for an ROI? Why not practice EA?
I have read many articles giving advice on how to sell a technology to the business. It seems that the ROI is a hard thing to derive and explain in business terms these days. You see it with SOA, Cloud Computing, Social Computing, and even with security (yes, having to prove the value of security)! Being a practitioner and addict of Enterprise Architecture, I find this method of thinking to be amusing and even backwards. It sounds to... Read More
How Technology is Drastically Changing the Future of Business
Todays announcement of 3Tera’s AppStore is just another mounting piece of evidence of how technology is drastically changing the business landscape of our future. 3Tera joins Amazon in delivering “cloud ready” components that enterprises, big and small, can quickly get up and running with very little upfront costs. Take at look at 3Tera’s website and you see that in Q3 of 2009 they will release many new... Read More
Your biggest competitor may not exist yet
Or, your biggest competitor may be a startup that is in stealth mode and you have no idea what they are up to. There are many reasons why you should be worried about new startups if you are a big monolithic company. Startups don’t have the following baggage: Cultural barriers that prevent innovation and new concepts Legacy systems that drain valuable resources (people, infrastructure, and budget) Silos between the business and... Read More
Strategies for developing a Roadmap for your SOA initiative
My quarterly article for the SOAInstitute.org was published today. In this post I mentioned that a lack of focus on architecture and a lack of a well defined roadmap has led to much of the struggles and even failures of enterprise SOA initiatives. Since I have written so much about the architecture side of the equation, my focus in this article was on strategies for SOA roadmaps. I will summarize the article briefly below but please read... Read More
If SOA is Dead, Cloud Computing better start writing its will
I just returned from the Forrester EA Forum ’09 in Miami. I enjoyed several great sessions discussing the state of EA (which is in need of a bailout), agile EA, and Jeanne Ross’s talk about architecting for Agility. But one session had me scratching my head. It was the discussion on cloud computing. If I was new to cloud computing like many people in the audience, I would have left the session with the mindset that cloud... Read More
Enterprise Architecture and Startups
I have a saying that I often use when talking to VCs that goes like this… Startups are quicker to market and quicker to fail Then I explain how our company is built for speed but also for scale (No Fail Whales here)! The reason is simple. We believe in and practice Enterprise Architecture. I can hear you now. How can a startup afford EA? A startup does not need to follow every single step of a framework or go into the depth within... Read More
Is Cloud Computing really insecure?
I have been following cloud computing for over a year now. In November I joined a startup who is building a suite of applications and services from the ground up. Our business requires that we have multiple data centers in multiple countries. As a startup, we are in a great position to leverage IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) to drastically reduce the amount of time and money required to go to market. So one of the risks that we... Read More
Are IT Leaders Missing the Boat?
I have spent a lot of time recently questioning the leadership of IT organizations who become a cost center due to a “keeping the lights on” mentality and have asked the question Are we Sleeping at the Wheel?. The other day I stumbled across a great article (thanks to some of my pals from Twitter land) that really hits the nail on the head. This is a must read article that brings to light what I think is the main reason why many IT... Read More
