2008

In the past few years there has been a major leap in the size of data that exist on the Web. Especially the launch of Web 2.0 websites like Wikipedia.org or YouTube.com had its effect on the presented information complexity as well as its actuality. There has been also a steady rise of B2B transactions enabled by the exchange of data between companies. The actual acceptance of e-commerce applications increased the amount of transactions in the B2C segment as well. As these changes already affected the structures of today’s Enterprise Architectures (EAs), future architectural concepts in this context will have to pick up challenges which are caused by the dynamic availability of a huge amount of services as variable elements of a next generation of enterprise software systems and system landscape. The article focuses on the problem of the dynamic discovery and invocation of appropriate Web Services in EA environments to fulfill this purpose. The proposed model is based on a decentralized network of Web Service providers and uses software agents which are responsible for the intelligent discovery and management of Web Service-Endpoints suitable to the needs of the consuming entity. The model considers preferences of users as dynamic criteria. Furthermore the reputation of service providers is seen as collective knowledge of a user community whereas past experiences of neighbored users influence the autonomous acting of user agents. Thus, relevant Web Services will be semantically described and discovered in a collaborative manner. The proposed architectural model is based on an open network architecture which abandons central elements for the management of service offerings in order to increase the openness of conventional architecture approaches. This article shows what current SWS technology offers in respect to the requirements needed by future EA scenarios and will point out the potentials of current SWS technologies in the EAI and B2B context. Furthermore SWS frameworks will be investigated according to their potential as regards to a dynamic discovery and invocation in the given context.

This paper represents a significant point of evolution in thought and practice about the design andmanagement of complex enterprises that often exist inhighly dynamic, sometimes chaoticoperating environments. The paper asserts that Coherency Management is the primary outcome goal of Enterprise Architecture (EA); that the architecture of enterprises should be formalized and promote coherency; and the best way to do this is to adopt EA as the ongoing, overarching method for abstracting, analyzing, designing, and re-engineering new and existing enterprises – regardless of the market, industry, or government sector that the enterprise belongs to. EA is about more than technology as it now has strategic and business dimensions – all of which must align to create agility and assurance in promoting transformation and delivering value. The paper discusses three modes of EA, namely Foundation Architecture, Extended Architecture and Embedded Architecture, that represent progression in thought and practice, with emphasis that the modes are independent but not necessarily mutually exclusive. The paper also discusses how collectively these influence enterprise coherency. The paper concludes by elaborating the ways and approaches to assess organizational coherence.

The U.S. Federal information technology (IT) space is currently experiencing the emergence and promotion of many seemingly disconnected and overlapping frameworks. This article provides an introduction to current prevalent and relevant IT frameworks and suggests possible relationships to the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) and EA function, with the intended audience being the current Federal sector EA practitioner.

Long term planning demands strategic vision, a clear picture of future operations. How does an enterprise create a strategic vision when Information Technology (IT) has become such a powerful force and everything seems to be changing? Part of the answer is to look for stability. This paper discusses the balance between stability and agility in open systems design. Logical structure is stable. The Delta Air Lines core diagram is presented as an example of strategic vision as enterprise architecture (EA). The CIO has an important governance role as sponsor and architect; the CEO as client.