Technology Architecture & Governance
from an IT Professional's Perspective

by Jeff Tash

Enterprise architects operate much like city planners. In both cases, their job is to map out infrastructure. Of course, the cyber equivalents of roads, schools, hospitals, water, sewer & gas pipes, electric, cable & phone lines, etc., are IT infrastructure components such as database managers, operating systems, a myriad of middleware stuff, and scores of jargon-laden product categories. This presentation examines how Technology Architecture can be used to organize, visualize, and communicate IT standards and how this impacts you, the IT professional and the organization. It also shows how a beneficial byproduct of standardization is consolidation which results in increased efficiencies, making you look like a cost-cutting hero to your CFO and CEO.

In this session, you will:

• learn about TOGAF’s (The Open Group Architecture Framework) four kinds of "architecture" that are commonly accepted as subsets of an overall Enterprise Architecture: Business Architecture; Data Architecture; Application Architecture; and Technology Architecture

• see how standards can be graphically communicated using a 3‑layer/4-model Technology Architecture framework consisting of INFRASTRUCTURE at the bottom, APPLICATIONS (Build or Buy) in the middle, and DATA at the top

• understand how the same Technology Architecture approach used to communicate and enforce IT standards can also be used to reduce complexity, improve collaboration, and increase knowledge sharing among software architects

• recognize the role of Technology Architecture and standards for harnessing and controlling the creation and maintenance of taxonomy, ontology, and classification for SOA services