Big Data as a Competitive Advantage

Source: Click Here

 Everyone is talking about big data and so I looked into articles to see what it actually means and what is the hype about it.Big data is well defined as the three V's : Volume of data ,Velocity of streaming data and Variety of formats of data.Some extend the dimensions to be Variability as data flow can be inconsistent and Complexity to manage or transform data forms.The challenge lies in handling the Big data to be optimized and used effectively.

The use of big data is becoming the key way for leading companies to outperform their peers.However the problems being faced are on the rise.The data being in binary formats require approaches to identify and report the actual content and form patterns to enable the user to see what it means.It is surprising to see that data need not be 100% perfect.However the outlook to this according to Gartner is that  to use the term "Linked data" to describe a data quality process when sampling large data volumes.Linked data is the data from various sources that has a relationship to each other and maintains the context to be useful to the user.

 Large companies seem to be investing a lot on this.However practically it is possible even for small companies to afford this by accessing applications that are available on the cloud.Big data seems to be the next hot technology fix for businesses.Do you agree?Atleast I believe it will be on the market as every companies tag line may be more,who knows what is next...

Reference:

• http://www.sas.com/en_us/insights/big-data/what-is-big-data.html

Data Management and Architecture: Services Overview

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It is always nice to read on Data and how it serves as an important key in every functionality.Without data there is no information.How to manage this data to be able to provide a technology that is worth a million?It requires investments and putting the processes and people in place to manage all the aspects of data life cycle.

Organizations are tending to realize the importance of data management and architecture as it is required for making decisions,carrying out activities and creating models that help build business processes.There are a few questions to ponder upon:

• Have you received tonnes of data and has it all been in the same format?
• Have you encountered a situation where you refer to a term and someone refers to it differently?
• Have you seen organizations use the same terminology for their data models,Do other people from various units comprehend it?

To be able to manage data ,the data architecture should provide a structure,holistic approach that delivers offering, support clients in managing data.Data Management helps in reducing inherent risks with data quality,improves productivity,improves customer satisfaction and performance.

Here is Accenture's Data Management & Architecture into following domains:

Data Governance	The human organization to manage and oversee data
Data Structure	The definition of data
Data Architecture	The storage, movement and retrieval of data
Master Data Management	The maintenance of consistent core data throughout an enterprise and with business partners
Metadata	The management of data definitions and information about data
Data Quality	The accuracy, completeness and legal compliance of data
Data Security	The protection of data and the authorization to use it

I think these six capabilities form a solid framework though I think every other company might have something better.Does any other company manage data with maturity?This may not be the ultimate to manage data but I feel this gives a clear view on what to expect in creating a Data model to be able to manage and architect the organizations information well.

Web Application into the Cloud Architecture

Source : “We are getting data from the cloud”

I found this article to give a clear understanding of Web applications and Cloud Architecture.This helps us visualize the concept in real terms.To understand the concept it is important to know that all data retrieved from a web browser does not come from the cloud.Web applications and Cloud computing are correlated but not one and the same.

Web Application:

                                    

Web application Architecture consists of a web server eg:Apache , logic layer executing the requests in a desired manner and backend database.The architecture normally resides on the physical layer.


Web Application To Cloud Architecture:

       

Web applications needs a middle ware to transform into cloud architecture. The middle ware is the load balancer which helps to distribute the workload across multiple servers.It requires some hardware and software executing algorithm to perform.As seen in the figure cloud architecture requires multiple resources interacting to deliver the application.

This article gives a view on how one can look at web applications.I do work on web apps and never thought the need to think in this way.Probably by default I took it for granted that anything hosted online either came from the cloud or just did not want to use the cloud technology.This gives a nice picture to see what to expect in current world where cloud is taking over applications.

Enterprise architecture best practices for Agile development

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This article highlights the best practices to be incorporated in an organization to bring in Agile processes to make Enterprise Architecture function effectively.There seems to be a correlation of successes for enterprise architecture when teams work collaboratively to understand what the architectural vision is and can help actively build it.The key best practice is for the architect to focus on architectural principles and make sure everyone in the team understands it.People then tend to see value in the EA architecture and are able to communicate as well as provide feedback on it.

Another important aspect than just not focusing on communicating is to work towards building an agile process environment.The architects get involved with the team and also attend scrum meetings to give direction and more knowledge on artifacts .This gives the development team the opportunity to address things that are not in accordance with the architectural principles.This also gives a strong focus on architectural requirements and non-functional requirements.

I believe this holds good in lot of cases.In organizations, I have worked previously it is seen that Agile processes are well in place and followed.However this works for project levels or one higher level.They do not work in collaboration and I would say no one thinks or is aware of how it matches with the high level architecture picture.I think these steps might help bring us one step closer to realize the key aspects of minute changes made in the work cycle.

EA Employed

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Have you ever thought about employing an Enterprise Architect to your organization?What are the skills you are looking for and how would you approach this?Some organizations might have a career path in place with a set of qualifications and experiences required to be an Enterprise Architect while some organizations have no clue what to look for.Who is right?
This article discusses on what everyone is running behind and how they might fall short on key aspects on choosing an Enterprise Architect.The EA position should encompass technical and strategic skills but also innovative and practical.Cloud,data,services and mobility are shaking up the stack and the steps that can be taken as a CIO to mitigate the challenges and build a successful EA function :

• Lookout for blended technology executives
• Make them as senior as you can
• Balance their work

From what I have noticed it is true EA executives have the broad range of skills but something definitely lacks in each case.It is either the organization is unable to utilize their potentials or the candidates working towards the EA modules are more technical driven and often confuse the EA aspects to be far related from business but more software focused.It is not true in all cases there are scenarios where well qualified architects are taking up roles to lead the organization and bring about a remarkable transformation.So the selection process should define the expectations and experiences required to make sure an Enterprise Architect is well placed.

EA Layered

Source: http://www.ebizq.net/blogs/ea_matters/2013/12/enterprise-architecture-deserves-layers.php
         
This article on EA matters gives us a picture on of how Enterprise Architecture represents the entire organization and the importance of layers that form the system.Every organization has a different description of the areas that form their layers.Also the representation of each layer will be modified to match the needs of the company.
The Layers that are most commonly seen in an organization are the Business and Technology Layer.In this reading we see the other layer to be the People's layer and there a pattern between these layers.

   

Business Layer: Functional structure and Operations for the enterprise
Technology Layer: Resources that implement the operations of the business layer
People Layer: Depicts the human resource of the organization executing the processes in the business layer and applications in the technology layer.

Information is said to be abstract in the business layer and stored and processed in the other layers.

This is a little different approach than the widely known layers of having the Business,Applications,Data and Technology layers.After reading the main source : http://weblog.tetradian.com/2013/12/11/on-layers-in-ea/ for this article makes it clear that enterprise architecture and its layers is adopted in organizations to best suit their needs and every architect has a different prespective to see what fits well for their functioning.It is thereon interesting to see how our naked eyes can assume things and see what we want to see rather than what the actual picture depicts.

"Perception is the key to model an enterprise in the way one perceives to achieve"

Here is a short video on how things might appear different and the viewpoints can change for every organization.

SOA - Service Oriented Architecture

What is SOA?

The Service Oriented architecture as the name suggests provides the service for various business/applications at a time instead of dis jointly working.It generates the interface for various systems. SOA is a pattern or technique to facilitate the service for these applications on various systems.

Source:   Click Here

It is an interesting read to see how SOA along with EA in an enterprise can consist of application services,information resources and technology infrastructure.The SOEA is said to provide the data services also.Data services are the key to sustain any form of architecture.In any organization having a built architecture or looking to move to a new architecture has data to be transferred to the new system.The concept of enterprise data service needs to address the data knowledge,sharing,search,mining,storage considering the various factors.This services helps in building the infrastructure overall.The infrastructure formed by EA makes the enterprise form the same in the lines of business.


                                                    



SOA often faces the challenges of  "What application services are needed?" and "What services best suit an enterprise?".This is where EA plays a major role of building the infrastructure for these services by providing an overall view of the business rather than following the stovepipe and limiting it to each line of business.The new way of SOA approach is to have an Infrastructure to connect to any IT resources,its technology and wherever it is deployed.
It is important to know the applications need to blend into the enterprise functions to be able to provide customized services and form a solid frame to maintain the infrastructure for a sustained time frame.

I see how SOA and EA can bring about a vast change in developing application architecture along with technology infrastructure and data resources.Also here is a Video on SOA,I thought this might be a nice view to see SOA work.

References:

• http://www.enterprise-architecture.info/Images/Services%20Oriented%20Enterprise/EA_Service-Oriented-Architecture1.htm
• https://bsacca.wordpress.com/