It is back. And it is angry.
And it is called virtualization. And it has people afraid. But not me.
Think of it. All CPU cycles completely fungible. Imagine the possibilities.
Got 500 idle desktops running Microsoft Vista? Assign the CPU and I/O resources to your core ERP system. Need to bring up seven servers with a full […]

At the Cutter Summit this year, I attended Mike Rosen’s talk on “Ten Things an Architect Does” and thoroughly enjoyed the conversation about the job of an architect. But it got me thinking about the different things architects do and how many kinds of architects it would be nice to have.
My Killer Architecture Team would […]

We recently published the results of our annual Cutter Benchmark Review survey on trends and technologies for the coming year. This is the third yearly issue of CBR where we ask our contributors to look forward to the coming year and see what technologies and IT trends we can expect to endure, which ones are […]

Beat ‘em up. Knock ‘em down. Slap ‘em around. Keep them on a short leash. Teach them a lesson. Make ‘em behave. Vendors, that is.
This phrase has recently seeped into common IT parlance. I’ve even heard vendors, typically large ones, say that the reason we should buy their wares is that they can then provide […]

While we’d all like to know whether your door is open or closed this holiday season and you’d welcome us for a pop-in visit, what we’re referring to here is architecture. In his recent Advisor, Ken Orr, Fellow, Cutter Business Technology Council, discusses some of the benefits and drawbacks to open and closed approaches to […]

We are not alone.
In the struggle for business strategy alignment, I believe we have a compatriot in, if you can believe it, marketing. After all, we in IT have much in common with marketing.
Certainly longer in the tooth and possessing a meaner kick than the young colt known as the enterprise architect, the brand strategists […]

It’s funny where things end up. Last year I participated in an ‘Enterprise Architecture Skills’ project hosted by the International Association of Software Architects (IASA) and sponsored by Microsoft. The project created a library of short articles describing the skills and activities of an Enterprise Architect. This month, my article on “The Role of Architecture […]

In the one corner stands the fire breathing reptile, Enterprise Architecture and in the other corner we see pacing restlessly an 8,000 pound gorilla known as Agile Development. Eternally opposed to each other, these two ways of looking at the world fight it out year after year.
Enterprise architects like a command and control, autocratic and […]

Are Agile methodologies and EA compatible? Cutter Senior Consultant Jim Watson and Cutter’s Director of the EA Practice Mike Rosen think so. They’ve recently been interviewed by InfoQ.com. Do read their insights.
In the interview, Jim and Mike elaborate a bit on their opinions expressed in the Cutter Executive Report Are Agile Methods and Enterprise Architecture […]

Rebecca Herald’s recent post “Are you Prepared for the Unexpected” got me thinking about an architecture seminar I gave last month in Mexico. I was describing some of the values of architecture, including preparing for the future. Someone from the audience asked “How can we prepare for changes when we don’t know what they will […]