There are a number of trends that are affecting how organizations support enterprise architecture. These trends cover four major areas: business transformation, security, ecosystem and cloud-based systems and AI-enabled technologies.

Introduction

Enterprise architecture (EA) has emerged as a critical discipline to help enterprises align their assets with their business strategy. The discipline of EA is focused on bridging the gap between strategy and execution by delivering business outcome-focused roadmaps, models, and frameworks that enable balanced and informed investment decisions.

Traditionally, EA is most often viewed as having four different viewpoints or lens: business, technology, information and solution architecture. The concept is that while EA leaders take a holistic view, there is often a role for individuals within an EA team to take a deeper dive into specific viewpoints and bring these viewpoints back into the overall EA effort.