Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
making use of Web service standards such as SOAP and UDDI to pass
information between applications, programmers can work simultaneously
on different parts of a larger application without having to worry about
using the same language or parameter-passing mechanisms. All that is
required is that a set of standards is used for the information exchange
itself—often a variant of the XML specification. This has the short-term
benefits of both rapid development and platform independence that allows
a heterogeneous enterprise to take advantage of solutions developed using
this methodology. However, the varied nature of development and the
distributed processing potential of SOA solutions can complicate technol-
ogy modernization and disaster recovery planning.
Whatever's Next
Emerging developments in optical and quantum computing offer glimpses
into new mechanisms for cryptography and data mining that are sim-
ply not possible using today's technologies. The synthesis of asynchro-
nous e-mail and threaded discussion boards with synchronous chat and
instant messaging systems is extending into data-based communications
for voice-over-IP (VoIP) and teleconferencing, where a shared whiteboard
can be used to share doodles across a dozen participants in a dozen dif-
ferent countries. These issues and more must be considered today by the
chief architect, so that strategies will already be planned if they later reach
commercial viability. Built atop yesterday's decisions, the enterprise archi-
tect must make choices for today that will offer options for tomorrow.
Summary
In order to succeed, an enterprise needs a coordinated architectural
vision. Ultimately, this requires that someone be responsible for creating
the vision, presenting the implementation, and resolving the inevitable
conflicts that follow change. The architect must be knowledgeable in a
wide range of technologies, information technology governance, existing
architectural models, project management methods, and a wide range of
both “hard” and “soft” skills needed to gain support and engagement in
the process of turning the vision into a functional enterprise.
