Future of IA and IA - Information Assurance Architecture - page 371

Personal preference is the sailboat analogy albeit with the addition of rolling
swells, crashing waves, perfect breezes, plodding shade clouds passing overhead,
and many other variations that make the trip precariously fascinating.

14.3.2 Future Vision Framework

Where does the future begin? Is it a result of today? Yesterday? Everything that has
come before? Is the future a nested set of ever-repeating patterns of vast complexity?
Considerations can become quite philosophical. However, in the interest of pragma-
tism, consider the following seven processes through which to consider the future:

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Drivers—Influences and motivations to action
Extension—Looking forward from the present
Extrapolation—Looking forward from the past
Pendulum—What is old is new again
Patterns—Discernable coherence from an aggregation of discrete actions
Connections—Butterfly effect and pinball effect; the subtle and sometimes
frantic results from seemingly innocuous actions
Chaos—An attempt to bound and explain the complexities of random
behavior

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These processes apply from a variety of perspectives, including industry, orga-
nizational, departmental, group, group dynamics, business, and technical. The IA
architect applies these processes and perspectives to the situation at hand, whether
to predict the future of IA, predict the future of business/technology that may
influence IA, or predict the future organizational impact of the current project and
IA constraints. The following sections provide an expansion on these future vision
processes and provide examples through a look at the future of IA.

14.3.2.1 Drivers

Drivers behind IA architectural concerns include those in the Table 14.1.

14.3.2.2 Extension

The executive boardroom has little interest in information assurance per se; execu-
tives want to manage business risk . They do not want to buy firewalls and anti-mal-
ware software; executives want to invest in risk management solutions . As an extension
of this requirement, there will be an increase in demand to align and justify IA

Inspired by Thinking in the Future Tense .