Connected Architecture for the Creative Economy

Steve Denning’s insightful blog post ‘Leadership In The Three-Speed Economy’ has me pondering on the correlation with IT. Does ‘IT in the Three-Speed Economy’ follow a similar pattern?

I am not sure it is cut and dried. My experience suggests that IT can be like the example of GE that Steve provides, where all three economies can exist in the same organization and where pockets of creative IT thinking exist within the morass of traditionalism.  That said, IT in most Traditional Economy organizations will probably follow the pattern in the table below.

Connected Architecture for a Connected Planet

Or how to connect the architecture dots to support a smart connected planet.

Introduction

The notion of a connected planet is far from new.  However, the number of connections as illustrated in figure 1 is growing at an exponential rate, and it is fast becoming a reality in which many organizations must operate.

However, I doubt many organizations are preparing for this in a systematic way. More likely, experience suggests that dozens of connected ‘solutions’ will permeate the organization via myriad routes and just add to the complexity of the business and IT landscape, becoming yet more spaghetti that someone is left to untangle.

Architecture is key to dealing with this. However, architectural practices must evolve to themselves become more connected, and not a set of isolated disciplines as they are often practiced today.
Hence, in this note as well as considering the challenges and opportunities provided by the connected planet, I outline the role of connected architecture.