Before we head out of Future State and dive into Current State
discussions, I thought of asking one more thing: Did we remember to discuss
trends convincingly in communicating future state vision?
The list of mortal sins for the enterprise architect is
hopefully not a long list, but I think that it would definitely include
possession of a vague, if not cobwebbed, list of technology trends. After all,
how can we show the best advisory posture to get organizational buy-in, if
we're still selling old stuff? Porter reminds us that constant innovation is
the key to competitive advantage.
Gartner
defines a strategic technology trend as one that can have a significant impact
on the organization, and includes those with a high potential for disruption to
the business, end users or IT, the need for a major investment, or the risk of
being late to adopt. These are technologies which impact the organization's
long-term plans, programs, and initiatives. In other words, these are the
exciting stuff that can make enterprise architects look like rock stars.
Last year, Gartner wrote about the top 10 strategic technology trends for 2016 which they
believe can shape business opportunities through 2020. I have incorporated my
own small comments into the salient points of the listing.
1.) The Device Mesh. The device mesh promotes connectivity and
collaboration, and refers to an expanding set of endpoints people use to access
applications and information, or interact with people, social communities,
governments and businesses. The device mesh includes mobile devices, wearable,
consumer and home electronic devices, automotive devices and environmental devices
— such as sensors in the Internet of Things (IoT).
2.) Ambient User Experience.
This pushes connectivity further by making it continuous. The device
mesh creates the foundation for a new continuous and ambient user experience.
Immersive environments delivering augmented and virtual reality hold
significant potential but are only one aspect of the experience. The ambient
user experience preserves continuity across boundaries of device mesh, time and
space. The experience seamlessly flows across a shifting set of devices and
interaction channels blending physical, virtual and electronic environment as
the user moves from one place to another
3.) 3D Printing Materials. This trend will make us rethink the assembly
line and supply chain processes. Advances in 3D printing have already enabled
3D printing to use a wide range of materials, including advanced nickel alloys,
carbon fiber, glass, conductive ink, electronics, pharmaceuticals and
biological materials. These innovations are driving user demand, as the
practical applications for 3D printers expand to more sectors, including
aerospace, medical, automotive, energy and the military. The growing range of
3D-printable materials will drive a compound annual growth rate of 64.1 percent
for enterprise 3D-printer shipments through 2019.
4.) Information of Everything.
Aka Big Data. Everything in the digital mesh produces, uses, and transmits
information. This information goes beyond textual, audio and video information
to include sensory and contextual information. Information of everything
addresses this influx with strategies and technologies to link data from all
these different data sources. Information has always existed everywhere but has
often been isolated, incomplete, unavailable or unintelligible. Advances in
semantic tools such as graph databases as well as other emerging data
classification and information analysis techniques will bring meaning to the
often chaotic deluge of information.
5.) Advanced Machine Learning. Combined with big data availability, machine
learning can bring significant insights on what the customers want and will
want. While data mining focuses on the discovery of properties in data, machine
learning focuses on prediction based on known properties learned, and the discovery
of patterns. In advanced machine learning, deep neural nets (DNNs) move beyond
classic computing and information management to create systems that can
autonomously learn to perceive the world, on their own. The explosion of data
sources and complexity of information makes manual classification and analysis
infeasible and uneconomic. DNNs automate these tasks and make it possible to
address key challenges related to the information of everything trend.
6.) Autonomous Agents and Things. This trend will change how we enter data into
systems, including those for medical transcripts. Machine learning gives rise to a
spectrum of smart machine implementations — including robots, autonomous
vehicles, virtual personal assistants (VPAs) and smart advisors — that act in an
autonomous (or at least semiautonomous) manner. While advances in physical
smart machines such as robots get a great deal of attention, the software-based
smart machines have a more near-term and broader impact. VPAs such as Google
Now, Microsoft's Cortana and Apple's Siri are becoming smarter and are
precursors to autonomous agents. The emerging notion of assistance feeds into
the ambient user experience in which an autonomous agent becomes the main user
interface. Instead of interacting with menus, forms and buttons on a
smartphone, the user speaks to an app, which is really an intelligent agent.
7.) Adaptive Security Architecture. Ignore risk management at your own career
risk. The
complexities of digital business and the algorithmic economy combined with an
emerging "hacker industry" significantly increase the threat surface
for an organization. Relying on perimeter defense and rule-based security is
inadequate, especially as organizations exploit more cloud-based services and
open APIs for customers and partners to integrate with their systems. IT
leaders must focus on detecting and responding to threats, as well as more
traditional blocking and other measures to prevent attacks. Application
self-protection, as well as user and entity behavior analytics, will help
fulfill the adaptive security architecture.
8. Advanced System Architecture. If you have convinced your
organization to go big data, this trend can force your organization's hand to
go cloud. The digital mesh and smart machines require intense computing
architecture demands to make them viable for organizations. Providing this
required boost are high-powered and ultra efficient neuromorphic architectures.
Fueled by field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) as an underlining technology
for neuromorphic architectures, there are significant gains to this
architecture, such as being able to run at speeds of greater than a teraflop
with high-energy efficiency.
9. Mesh App and Service Architecture. If you have not
yet promoted SOA in your organization, you can't go to the next level. Monolithic, linear
application designs (e.g., the three-tier architecture) are giving way to a
more loosely coupled integrative approach: the apps and services architecture.
Enabled by software-defined application services, this new approach enables
Web-scale performance, flexibility and agility. Microservice architecture is an
emerging pattern for building distributed applications that support agile
delivery and scalable deployment, both on-premises and in the cloud. Containers
are emerging as a critical technology for enabling agile development and
microservice architectures. Bringing mobile and IoT elements into the app and
service architecture creates a comprehensive model to address back-end cloud
scalability and front-end device mesh experiences. Application teams must
create new modern architectures to deliver agile, flexible and dynamic
cloud-based applications with agile, flexible and dynamic user experiences that
span the digital mesh.
10. Internet of Things Platforms. IoT platforms complement the mesh app and service
architecture. The management, security, integration and other technologies and
standards of the IoT platform are the base set of capabilities for building,
managing and securing elements in the IoT. IoT platforms constitute the work IT
does behind the scenes from an architectural and a technology standpoint to
make the IoT a reality. The IoT is an integral part of the digital mesh and
ambient user experience and the emerging and dynamic world of IoT platforms is
what makes them possible.
Reference: Gartner (2015 October 6). Gartner Identifies the Top
10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2016. Press Release. Retrieved from
http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3143521
I was supposed to discuss a different set of trends but thought
of sending this ahead instead. This should be a good segue to future blogs on more trends.
Cheers and please remember to keep it light.
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