Like the tech world that underpins it, enterprise architecture is always growing and changing. When new technologies appear, the landscape changes—making it difficult for architects, even experienced ones, to maintain their pace. While some trends add little value, others are here to stay. Here, we will define enterprise architecture, and we will also discuss three technology trends that are changing EA as we know it.
Enterprise Architecture Defined
Enterprise architecture, or EA, is how an organization’s IT infrastructure is arranged and planned. Basic principles guide companies through various technology, procedural, information, and business strategies, with the goal of reaching a certain outcome.
With origins in the 1960s concept of business systems planning, enterprise architecture has become a way for businesses to combine past, current, and future processes in ways that optimize their capabilities.
Edge Computing
The first trend on our list can best be described as a natural progression of distributed computing, where several software components and machines are run as a single system. Some of the biggest benefits of edge computing are:
- Decreased network requirements. When apps are run on the network edge, most information is processed locally. Therefore, devices only connect to resources when necessary, which reduces latency and bandwidth requirements.
- Greater resiliency and security. As data is stored on local devices, crucial applications and infrastructure are kept more secure. Edge computing, however, requires redundancy, failover, standardization, and device management.
As more data is processed locally, companies will save money by reducing their reliance on centralized resources. Edge computing is changing the way businesses capture data, as well as their approaches to system automation and core processes.
Agility and DevSecOps Frameworks
According to the DevSecOps manifesto, the integration of security, operations, and development at every level will encourage innovation without sacrificing data privacy and security. In DevSecOps, business owners must reshape their security procedures and processes.
Agility helps development and business teams collaborate to streamline the delivery process. When combined with DevSecOps, the agile method leverages a company’s operational, security, and development capabilities to bring applications into production sooner and more efficiently.
CI/CD
Continuous integration and continuous development, or CI and CD, are defined as the steps by which tasks are grouped into production pipeline stages, including:
- The building stage. Here, applications are turned from source code into machine-readable code.
- Testing. Next, the code undergoes testing, with automation shortening the time required to build configuration files.
- Release. The tested application is sent to a repository.
- Deployment. Finally, the code is sent to production.
The last stage in the production pipeline is validation and compliance. For builds to be validated, changes must comply with the organization’s development cycle and policies. Continuous integration and continuous development are not limited to DevOps, but they are reshaping enterprise architecture.
Hyperautomation
These days, machines are taking over many processes that were once labor-intensive and time-consuming. Hyperautomation is a trend that encompasses process mining, machine learning, AI, and process automation, thereby uniting processes and teams. Because hyper-automation is streamlining IT and business processes around the world, it has earned a spot on our list of trends to watch.
Change is Coming: Be Ready
The time for organizations to rework their processes is now. When companies pay attention to tech trends and use that knowledge to develop innovative, scalable, and agile enterprise architecture, they are sure to control costs, satisfy employees and customers, and gain an edge over their competitors.