Cloud and the evolution of the enterprise architect

Enterprise architects have been a staple of corporate IT departments for then over a decade now, starting in earnest with the advent of service-oriented architecture and corporate data modeling. The need for enterprise architecture was spurred by the need to gain control over an increasingly complex computing environment, and an increasingly large backlog of data and feature needs. However those needs are changing, to cut a long story short is the job of the enterprise architect.

The use of the term “architecture” in this context comes, partly, from the idea that one can create a “blueprint” for how a business can run on innovation. The “architect” is someone who looks at the materials available, interviews the “client” about desired form and functional outcomes, and engineers solutions to meet those needs.

Enter cloud computing. As I’ve discussed previously, cloud computing is creating an environment in which software elements and data collections intertwine to create a complex adaptive system. What this means is that “control” over the design parameters of enterprise computing is starting to be highly distributed among cloud infrastructure providers, service operators and those that build and run applications on those services.

In the end, the idea of “blueprinting” an ideal solution for an enterprise’s computing needs just doesn’t work. Things move to fast. People make decisions completely independent of what your business objectives are. There are entire data schemas, messaging formats, API definitions, and even entire business processes that an enterprise relies on that will be out of an “architect’s” control.

Bit extreme

But saying “there is no enterprise architecture” is a bit extreme, so let me temper that thought-slightly. There is no way to precisely specify the design, implementation and integration of complex cloud-based application systems. So the role of the enterprise architect is no longer building and maintaining a stable computing model for the enterprise. In the age of computing as a single, global, complex system, that role has to shift.

To what? Anyway you look at it, there is the need for someone to watch over how individual applications, data sets and services evolve within the new world. There is a need for someone to guide the alignment of those software elements with business needs.

In businesses that are themselves complex, there are tremendous efficiencies to be gained by the smart application of IT. That element of the enterprise architect’s role doesn’t go away.

What does change are the skills needed to evaluate how business applications, data sets and services are going to interact-and survive-in a complex, adaptive systems environment. If developers are the DNA of software in the cloud, the enterprise architect becomes the immune system, encouraging the growth of systems that help the business thrive, and killing those that would cost the business.

In software companies, the product manager “owns” the success of the product: what market it should address, what capabilities it should provide to address that market, how it should be presented to that market, when all is said and done on. A product manager finds him or herself performing a constant blend of market analysis, product definition, business development and messaging.

Just as software product managers must constantly work to make their products thrive in its complex market ecosystem, so too must the new enterprise product managers constantly evaluate ways to make their business systems thrive in a complex computing ecosystem. Yes, there is all in all architecture involved, however it’s no longer the primary role. The primary role is management and analysis.

What there isn’t

What there isn’t, as a rule, is an attempt to lock down specifically how business applications and data will act and interact system-wide. An enterprise product manager should be an expert in the concept of Observe, Orient, Decide and Act. And in the stability-resilience tradeoff.

I believe cloud computing is going to turn this on its head and create a world in which we architect some basic, simple mechanisms that make system-wide architecture both impossible and undesirable at scale. At the time the magic of emerging behavior and intricate systems evolution will begin. That, my friends, will be an amazing thing to experience-and a new challenge to manage.