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The industrial internet of things (IIoT): An analysis framework

Historically, Industrial Automation and Control Systems (IACS) were largely isolated from conventional digital networks such as enterprise ICT environments. Where connectivity was required, a zoned architecture was adopted, with firewalls and/or demilitarized zones used to protect the core control system components. The adoption and deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies is leading to architectural changes to IACS, including greater connectivity to industrial systems. This paper reviews what is meant by Industrial IoT (IIoT) and relationships to concepts such as cyber-physical systems and Industry 4.0. The paper develops a definition of IIoT and analyses related partial IoT taxonomies. It develops an analysis framework for IIoT that can be used to enumerate and characterise IIoT devices when studying system architectures and analysing security threats and vulnerabilities. The paper concludes by identifying some gaps in the literature.

Towards a Visual Language Approach for Modeling Business Ecosystems

Enterprises develop, produce, and distribute their products and services nowadays in complex and increasingly digital business ecosystems consisting of business partners, suppliers, competitors, start-ups, public institutions, and costumers. These business ecosystems exhibit a high dynamic: new actors enter and leave the ecosystem continuously. Thus, for enterprise business and IT strategy the knowledge about and active design of the business ecosystems are gaining more relevance. Various stakeholders within the enterprise need to collaborate to achieve a holistic understanding of the ecosystem, all with different requirements towards the ecosystem model. As visualizations have proven to support stakeholders in fulfilling their ecosystem related tasks, the aim of this research project is the modeling and visualizing of business ecosystems addressing the identified challenges.

Enterprise Thinking for Self-aware Systems

The paper aims to provide high-level guidance for architects of cyber-physical enterprises such that the nature of interactions within it as a system can be largely self-determined based on system self awareness and dynamic self-configuration, and a set of foundational guiding principles, rather than being pre-defined by an external designer or architect. The paper investigates the suitability of typical development life cycles and architectural challenges in the context of dynamic cyber-physical systems intending to utilize the power of the Internet of Things, and then goes on to define desired attributes of such systems, which need to guide suitable core architectural choices. Application of the findings is exemplified through a case study, followed by synthesis of issues and implications for further research.

From Enterprise Architecture to Business Ecosystem Architecture: Stages and challenges for extending architectures beyond organizational boundaries

Today, Enterprises act in an increasingly interconnected world and in different kinds of collaborative networks. They are part of business ecosystems in which they interact with their customers, partners and competitors. The processes of analyzing and planning the intertwinement of business and IT architecture within enterprises has been successfully supported by enterprise architecture management (EAM) approaches. In this paper, we analyze four cases from different industries (health care, logistics, retail, and education) and argue that the intra-organizational concepts of enterprise architectures (EA) and EAM need to be extended to grasp the challenges of the enterprises’ interconnectedness. Beyond the known concepts of extended enterprise architecture and federated architectures, we define five stages of extended architectures. Additionally, we describe challenges and existing solutions, which are relevant for this extended perspective.

An integrated conceptual model for information system security risk management supported by enterprise architecture management

Risk management is today a major steering tool for any organisation wanting to deal with information system (IS) security. However, IS security risk management (ISSRM) remains a difficult process to establish and maintain, mainly in a context of multi-regulations with complex and inter-connected IS. We claim that a connection with enterprise architecture management (EAM) contributes to deal with these issues. A first step towards a better integration of both domains is to define an integrated EAM-ISSRM conceptual model. This paper is about the elaboration and validation of this model. To do so, we improve an existing ISSRM domain model, i.e. a conceptual model depicting the domain of ISSRM, with the concepts of EAM. The validation of the EAM-ISSRM integrated model is then performed with the help of a validation group assessing the utility and usability of the model.

The Next Production Revolution: Implications for Governments and Business

This publication examines the opportunities and challenges, for business and government, associated with technologies bringing about the “next production revolution”. These include a variety of digital technologies (e.g. the Internet of Things and advanced robotics), industrial biotechnology, 3D printing, new materials and nanotechnology. Some of these technologies are already used in production, while others will be available in the near future. All are developing rapidly. As these technologies transform the production and the distribution of goods and services, they will have far-reaching consequences for productivity, skills, income distribution, well-being and the environment. The more that governments and firms understand how production could develop in the near future, the better placed they will be to address the risks and reap the benefits.