Enterprise software architecture is the process by which organizations standardize and organize IT infrastructure to align with business objectives. These strategies support digital transformation, IT growth, and IT modernization as a department.
What is Enterprise Software Architecture?
Enterprise software architecture refers to an architecture developed for the organized growth and development of a company’s information technology (IT). It focuses on the long-term evolution of IT systems, rather than merely the procedures in use today.
The quality of the enterprise software architecture implemented is vital in determining the success of an organization. Enterprise software architecture can be used to increase overall efficiency and reduce system complexity.
According to the leading AppStudio company, organizations making major IT systems improvements are looking for specialized business IT architects. By refactoring existing solutions, enterprise software architects are continually seeking to increase system agility.
Top 3 Major Enterprise Software Architecture Pattern
Space-based Pattern
The space-based architecture pattern is specifically designed to address and resolve scalability and concurrency problems. Also, it is a useful pattern for enterprise applications that have variable concurrent user volumes.
The space-based architecture is designed to prevent functional collapse under heavy load by dividing both processing and storage across multiple servers.
Advantages
- High performance is achieved through in-memory data access and the caching mechanisms built into this pattern.
- Respond instantly to a continually changing environment.
Event-based Architecture
This is the most common distributed asynchronous architecture used to develop a highly scalable system. The architecture pattern includes single-purpose event processing elements that listen for events and process them collectively.
The event-driven architecture creates a central unit that accepts all data and then delegates it to separate modules that handle the particular type.
Advantages
- Easily adaptable to often chaotic and complex environments.
- Easily extensible when new types of events appear
Microservices Architecture
When you write your application as a set of microservices, you are actually writing multiple applications that will work together. Each microservice has its own responsibility, and teams can develop them independently from other microservices. The only dependency between them is communication.
Since the microservices communicate with each other, you will need to ensure that the messages sent between them are backward compatible.
Advantages
- You can maintain, deploy and write, keep each microservice separately.
- New team members must become productive immediately.
- The application should be simple to modify and understand.
What Are the Six Elements of Enterprise Architecture?
Governance
The first essential element of Enterprise Architecture is Governance. It identifies the planning, decision-making and supervision processes and groups that will determine how the EA is developed, verified, versioned, used and maintained over time. Concerning the measures of integrity, consistency, and precision from the perspectives of all stakeholders.
Tools
The tools and agency selected for use with an EA program don’t just need to develop and store documentation. But it must be data-centric and meet the information needs of stakeholders to support planning and decision-making.
By using architectural information to support planning and decision-making, the EA repository is intended to provide a single place for storage and retrieval of architectural artifacts. Some Enterprise app developers Canada, even around the world says a repository works excellent if it is simple to use and access. A repository must be located on the internal network to provide information security and at the same time support access for managers, staff, and executives.
Standard
Architectural standards apply to all areas of Enterprise Architecture practice. These are important to achieve interoperability and resource optimization through standard methods like analysis, design, documentation and reporting.
Standards are included in EA’s common approach from several authoritative sources that are not proprietary and support development capacity. Also, it uses architecture within and between organizations, at the state, tribal, local, and international levels, and with industry partners.
Reporting
The reporting function of an EA program is vital to maintain an understanding of current capabilities and future options. Facilitating a repository of architecture solutions, plans, artifacts, and other information is not adequate.
The main products for this type of standardized reports are twofold:
(1) An annual Enterprise Architecture Plan
(2) a set of reference models that contain taxonomies to classify the information consistently in each sub-architecture view, as well as for Architecture general.
Audit
Auditing EA architectures and programs is vital to ensure quality work, consistent methods, and increasing levels of capacity. As with any management or technology program, internal and external experts need audits.
The audit ensures that the proper methods are followed, that the information is accurate and that value is generated for the organization. Adding audits and recommendations should be submitted to the Agency CIO for review and action.
Usage of Products
The value of Enterprise architecture is as much in the process as in the products. As per custom software development company, doing an architecture project provides a focus on an organization’s mission or support area. Besides, an EA resulting analysis and design activities, if done correctly, support improvements in that area.
Only an enterprise architecture can provide an integrated vision of strategic, commercial, and technological domains across all lines of business, services, and systems. It is key to optimizing mission capabilities and resource utilization.
Currently, there is no other best management practice, other than EA, that can serve as a context for planning and decision-making across the enterprise.