The Shift from On Premise to a Cloud Model and EA

Getting involved in the strategic planning of an organization is essential for all EA teams but in order to make the greatest impact. EA teams needs to consider how the strategic shift to cloud based applications affect their planning and implementation cycles. Over the last several years software giants have slowly began to embrace and implement cloud based solutions even for core IT systems such as ERP, CRM and HR. Cloud based applications are sold on a subscription model which allows EA team to set terms of those contracts and also more effectively plan for when procurement cycles need to occur for various enterprise applications. Furthermore, with more frequent product releases and approaches such as agile scrum organizations need to be increasingly ready to incorporate new product features into business models if they are to keep up with the increasingly changing marketplace.

 In the past, an ERP system might be used for 10-15 years with few changes in capabilities. EA teams built documents and aligned strategy around what the ERP could do and this worked. In the next 10 years as most companies shift to cloud based applications for the majority of their core systems it becomes incumbent on EA teams to modify their approach with more frequent updates to the “Future State” model to reflect these changes.

Heller does a great job of reflecting on this in an Oracle centric way in Public Cloud: The Next Frontier of Enterprise Architecture ( http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/entarch/oeea-public-cloud-next-frontier-2400599.html ). He points out that data integration, business process understanding, security and finally business intelligence are four dynamic challenges that must be managed if organizations are going to succeed in building a competitive advantage. The standardization of these many applications in a Cloud Suite can be a powerful tool for many of their clients, however there is a bit of nativity related to organizations purchasing their IT products from one vendor in a Stack as suggested. No one company is best-in class in every aspect as there are many vendors who unlike Oracle focus on verticals or micro-segments of the overall software market. In the future to avoid the problem of middleware ERP teams should consider and purchase products that offer connectivity outside of a product stack of one of the software behemoths. Every organization should be able to purchase and connect the products that are the best for the business needs of their organization without constriction. Software companies who support this flexibility will lead their individual markets as I believe the software stack will wane in strength within the marketplace.

EA teams can’t wait for this to happen to change their thinking and should always seek the best solution for their business.

Works Cited

Heller. (2015, January). Public Cloud: The Next Frontier in Enterprise Architecture. Retrieved June 2016, from Oracle : http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/entarch/oeea-public-cloud-next-frontier-2400599.html