By Gordon Cooper, Vice President of Strategic Customer Accounts, Orbus Software
When you look back on all the decisions you’ve made over the course of your life, you think, “there is no other outcome that was possible than to be exactly where I am at this point in time.” Now, an enterprise architect would add, “this is the exact destination I envisioned and designed.”
In other words, my career decisions have led me to where I am today: Orbus Software. Having been in the IT/enterprise architecture/field for more than 30 years, it seems I was destined to join Orbus to do what I love most: help my colleagues and friends to truly evolve enterprise architecture in their organization to the next level.
On my path, I have had the roles of both consumer and provider of enterprise architecture software. On the consumer side, I was a chief architect at an oil and gas company and VP of enterprise architecture at AIG. Then I moved to the provider side at Mega, Ardoq, and finally at my current position at Orbus. It has enabled me to work with some of the most engaging enterprise architecture teams in the world and view first-hand the evolution of enterprise architecture and the software that actualizes it.
The evolution of enterprise architecture tools
Years ago, enterprise architecture was predominately a technical architecture function. The title of architect was designated after years of engineering, so unsurprisingly the discipline was seen to be incredibly technical. As enterprise architecture has matured and broadened, it branched to business concepts, like capabilities and value streams. With this expansion, people outside of the architecture group needed that visibility, and the software has followed suit. The dramatic swing, driven by the pursuit of value demonstration, pushed enterprise architecture tools to move from pure modeling for architects to data analytics presentation for non-architects. This can be seen in the differences between legacy modeling tools like Mega and the newer data-driven/graph database tools like Ardoq. But as with all radical swings, the market was never really satisfied.
I like to use the example of a one-legged table to demonstrate the shift in the enterprise architecture tooling approach. Originally, these tools provided deep visibility into a single vertical, much like a table leg. But that pole is only so useful. Then, a radical shift meant a departure from that single leg toward the tabletop. The problem there is that you get breadth, but no depth.
In order to get the complete table, a few major solutions were needed:
- Easy population of the repository from multiple data sources
- Easy creation of models and graphic representations on the fly
- Provision of workflows to enable the conduct of enterprise architecture services
- The ability to model over time (current, future and iterative states)
Those solutions have been realized in the form of OrbusInfinity, specifically with its Flow and Draw features.
OrbusInfinity: Bringing integration and flexibility
While a SaaS platform may not be unique in the market, OrbusInfinity Flow and Draw certainly are. As a native integration platform as a service (iPaaS) OrbusInfinity Flow provides easy integration and workflow capabilities. This type of integration capability allows data to be used from multiple sources without turning your enterprise architecture platform into yet another CMDB dumping ground.
OrbusInfinity Draw enables enterprise architects to use these data components in the creation of models. Architects can literally think with their hands and graphically work through reference architectures, patterns, and solutions. They can then use OrbusInfinity Flow to submit these via workflows to fully realize enterprise architecture services offered to the broader community.
OrbusInfinity also integrates with itself (you might think this is obvious, but it is a unique capability). This means subsidiaries, business units, or divisions can have their own instances and decision-makers can access a comprehensive overview of all those instances. On top of this, there’s also a whole other set of unique offerings and benefits:
- Digital twin of the organization (DTO) for organizational change, innovation, strategy, portfolio management, and more
- Ideation to execution (software development lifecycle)
- Security and compliance by design
- Patterns and reference architectures (Shift-left architecture)
- Operating models and target operating models (Benefits analysis, Risk optimization, resource optimization, process improvement…)
- Future and iterative architectures and the associated review processes
Enterprise architecture's seat at the table
For years enterprise architecture was always clamoring for a seat at the table. In reality, it should have owned the table. But that’s enough about tables.
The evolutionary step to the strategic design of the enterprise is happening, but it can only be realized if enterprise architecture has the ability to integrate with the vital processes used to run an organization. To do that, you need depth and breadth. OrbusInfinity provides this, offering the perfect balance of structure and flexibility. With it, you can design your future, instead of being a victim of it.
So why Orbus, why now? I think it is obvious.
Reach out to me directly on LinkedIn and let’s talk about where you are on your path.