Being world class in Application Integration...

Application Integration has become the hottest topic on most organizations IT-agenda. The focus of Application Integration has also changed from being something that drove cost to now when organization has started to realize that being good at integration can give significant value both to to the own organization and especially as an added value to the customers. 

The rise of application integration is a natural consequence of our change in behaviour and habits and also that our integrity borders have somewhat disappeared. Nowadays we are happily sharing our habits and patterns with companies without any considerations, or maybe we allow others to know about us in exchange for services in our virtual life.

We also see that Internet of Things stepping into our daily life. Yes, Future is travelling with an amazing speed with direction towards us. We better be prepared, and the way to do that is to meet a connected world with excellence in Application Integration.

Read more from my blog post at iBiz Solutions: http://blog.ibiz-solutions.se/integration/technology-trends-that-drive-integration/

Image borrowed from http://www.itworldcanada.com/blog/how-canadian-organizations-use-the-internet-of-things/97386

Sharing is Caring

More thought on architecture on iBiz Solutions blog where I have some thoughts on astronauts, the cloud and how or if we can be prepared for future changes.
http://blog.ibiz-solutions.se/integration/sharing-is-caring/#more-318

End of days… or an architectural glitch?

Once again the end of the world didn’t happen as it was predicted… and I feel safe to say that since you are reading this blog post the prediction must have been wrong. Despite all the efforts, worries, planning and money people all over the world are spending on the final Armageddon it just doesn’t seem to happen.

The Maya Calendar back in  the 5th century BC stops counting today and some people translate this fact to that this must mean that the world can no longer exist because one of the calendars available stops counting (or at least transferring into a new era).

But think if the architect behind the Maya Calendar just thought that there is no reason to continue with current technique for the Maya Calendar since by December 21th 2013 (Gregorian counting) someone have probably invented a new technique or method for the purpose of counting days and years that is more accurate than the one he did. 

Thinking like this was probably a correct decision to take since that one thing we know for sure is that mankind is constantly evolving and processes, techniques and “calendars” that is innovate and accurate today are probably hopeless outdated 7000 years later. Unfortunately the Maya calendar architect forgot to document this architectural decision which led to that people of today is worried for no reason.

As architects we sometimes have to take design decisions that aren’t necessary the absolute best from a technical point of view but it services its business purpose. This is most often the correct decision to take but to avoid ending up as the Maya calendar with descendants worrying or spending unnecessary amount of money just because that a design choice was not documented.

Keep this in mind when designing solutions. Do not just document what the solution does also include a motivation for why it is designed as it is and what it doesn’t. On what grounds are the decisions taken? Was it due to time restrictions, technical limitations or because you had the technical competence on that platform?

Architectural design decisions are sometimes turning into a truth that no one dears to change and if the considerations that were taken at design time are left out then the same decisions might be taken again when a system are being changed even though the conditions for a better solution are available at the time of the change.

If the Maya calendar architect had just added a small architectural motivation stating that; The background to the Mayan calendar is divided into eras is because otherwise I would never be finished before the weekend and then I have no Friday beer… That would for sure helped us 7000 years later to not worry about our little planet would be no more.