10.15.09
Current Thinking Obfuscating the Obvious
Often we hear that solutions may be staring us in the face. Unfortunately, we are blinded by our inability to do what has been referred to as “Thinking outside the box”. Great recommendations like “Step back and look at the entire picture” are just not part of the normal way of dealing with challenges.
Normally, a first assessment is to see how we can apply a solution to improve our current status-quo. This is happening with Cloud Computing. CIOs are looking at this concept as just another way to provision hardware and infrastructure. They seem to see it as simply an outgrowth of the virtualization concept. Technically, they may be correct, as CIOs usually are, but they have not stepped back.
In the book, Seabiscuit an American Legend, Laura Hillenbrand describes how the automobile in the early 1900 was considered to be a nuisance. The automobile belched smoke, turned up dust, and would scare the horses. But, on April 18, 1906, things changed. A devastating earthquake hit San Francisco and fires broke out everywhere. The automobile proved its utility that day as an ambulance and as a transport that was not afraid of the fires. It was a beginning, but it still took years before automobiles became the primary means of transportation that we take for granted today.
Some believe that the recent economic disasters have awakened many to the benefits of Cloud Computing. We may have had our “1906 earthquake” in the 2008 market collapse. Most of the benefit is being attributed to the potential of reducing costs and supporting higher levels of innovation. It is seen as a new platform for business services. It is fostered as a new delivery model for Service-Oriented Architecture.
All of this seems to be right on target, but we still need to step back. Most organizations that let the Corporate IT group try SOA have shown little benefit. Applying this same approach across Cloud services will probably result in the same disappointing outcomes.
Top-down visionaries are needed to organize and visually present the business services. Those that do this today practice the profession of Enterprise Architect. They have proven their value in successful SOA deployments. They put the business first and the technology infrastructure second. These are rare and valuable individuals that will naturally step back when looking at an organization and its use of technology. They do “think outside the box”.
Enterprise Architects can bring the business value of Cloud services from public, private, or hybrid clouds to an organization. Without an Enterprise Architect, the services would be pulled together creating a Tower of Babble. But, with an Enterprise Architect, Cloud services would be organized into a clear understandable model. With this common language from the model, the business teams would be free to innovate across the entire enterprise.
