As I look upon the enterprise landscape today, I cannot help but wonder if the enterprises are going to be all right. Every couple of years, enterprises have to face the onslaught of their vendors who bring in newly coined phrases, acronyms, and newly minted software platforms, along with the promise of ROI. In the latest onslaught, enterprises are facing terms such as SOA, Web services, BPM, and BAM.
The new buzzword is AJAX, or Asynchronous JavaScript And XML. The speed at which the IT industry coins terms and makes it fashionable to use them gives the cool name creators in the fashion and entertainment industries a run for their money. System integrators and consultants capitalize on the confusion and introduce new solutions and services that range from architecture blueprinting to specific product implementations. Enterprises turn to industry analysts to understand who is the leading vendor of the current hype cycle and eventually cave in to the trend and buy another piece of technology to add to the existing collection. During the course of my career, I have been in all of the camps: vendor, consultant, and system integrator, which enables me to provide some unique and original thoughts on how to save the enterprise architecture.
