Semantic Integration & Enterprise Architecture

In many ways, Enterprise Architecture (EA) is as misunderstood as Semantics. Although EA has been practiced across a much wider community of IT professionals for a longer period of time, it still suffers from an identity crisis. Is EA the mandatory precursor for model driven development, or is it part of a bigger picture and if so, what is that picture?

It is my contention that the reason Enterprise Architecture is still misunderstood in many quarters and often unsuccessful in practice is precisely because it does exist within the context of a larger picture. All too often, that larger picture is simply ignored leaving those executing EA projects somewhat perplexed as to find meaningful ways to make their efforts relevant to the organization sponsoring their efforts.

Enterprise Architecture represents a practices, tools and techniques which have evolved to help define the nature and state transitions of an organization from an IT perspective. The business view of the enterprise is of course included within this perspective but EA at its heart is and always has been driven by technology. The EA perspective is of a virtual entity, perhaps even the cyber-identity of an organization. This view allows those who manage and maintain complex system of systems ecosystems through exploitation of a holistic characterization of all capability elements. However, like most things in IT, EA as a discipline suffers from a lack of clarity regarding its core principles and approaches. In other words, there is no agreed upon definition for any aspect of Enterprise Architecture right now.

Seeing a big picture - an example of a "Meta-EA view"

So, Semantics and EA come together on many different levels; first in the need for one to clarify the other, secondly in the ability to build that larger context and big picture view of where EA fits along with all of the other aspects of IT. To understand the complexity of the problem, it is worthwhile to capture some of the competing definitions that one current finds associated with the term “Enterprise Architecture:”

• Enterprise J2EE Architecture – This has been formalized within the curriculum and certification paradigm of the Sun Java Enterprise Architect designation. [http://www.sun.com/training/certification/java/scea.xml ]

• Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) – This has been defined by the Federal Government and supported through certification paradigms. http://www.enterprise-architecture.info/EA_Certification.htm

• Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF) – A wholly separate framework paradigm from FEAF.

• ToGAF, Zachman Architecture Frameworks – Commercially driven approaches.

• Unified Modeling Language – Often included within the context of other approaches but also often used standalone to manage EA efforts.

• Agile Enterprise Modeling & Architecture – Much more application development focused, generally less formalized than strict UML.

• Other Technical Specific Architecture – This is a long list and can include things such as .NET, Web 2.0, and literally 100’s of other software products.

• Service Oriented Architecture – This often now is bundled with business modeling using BPEL.

• Semantic Architecture – Yes, there a few people using this now although mostly within the context of semantic web technology or pure Ontological development.

So, what then is Enterprise Architecture, really? Is it a framework or set of frameworks, is it product specific skills, is it language specific skills, is purely technical or partially business focused, is it the metamodels and notation language used to characterize design?

Semantics allows us to integrate Systems & Architectures

The simple answer is that EA has been and will be what it needs to be to those who need it. There is no one approach now because no one approach will handle all of the related duties that architects are saddled with. The more important question has always been, will we find a way in which we can coordinate the various types of EA activities. This is an exact corollary to the questions that helped launch EA as a discipline (of set of disciplines) some twenty to thirty years ago. At that time pioneers in EA were looking for a way in which they could combine and coordinate the complexity of their systems environments. So, now its seems that EA has lead us to meta-integration. And what is the one approach we now have to tackle the problem at the top of complexity pyramid – Semantics.

copyright 2008, Semantech Inc.

Semantic Integration & IT

In many ways the practice of information technology has changed little over the past 30 years or so. It may not seem so on first appearance - but the premises upon which our current technologies are still operating are largely based on philosophical constructs that date back 30 years or more.

Those constructs include:

• The Relational Database.
• The Data Warehouse.
• System Management (system as self-contained entity).
• "Static" Business Rules Management (more or less permanent view of the nature of rules within the enterprise) - exemplified by maturity models.
• The notion of IT service provision as separate and distinct from the elements of the business which they serve.

Of course, there are exceptions to this but in many ways these basic foundational elements still represent the core of most IT activity within the typical enterprise. Each of these areas and others has arisen to meet certain needs; there has been an ever-increasing level of specialization within IT that has more or less extended the basic model without really changing it. This has made some areas of IT management more effective but has hindered the ability to truly unify IT capability. Some people refer to these phenomena as 'sub-optimization' or 'compartmentalization.' In the government arena it is sometimes referred to as 'stovepiping.'

The dilemma is the same though, how does one make progress and get work done while solving near-term specific problems and simultaneously leverage the full potential of all enterprise assets? This can be done and can occur in the near-term using existing technologies - the problem we face now though is one of perception and philosophy. IT is used to working in its current sub-optimized mode, its relative detachment from the primary functions of the organizations it serves tends to provide a disincentive to view the big picture requirements they always receive yet never truly fulfill.

The paradigm shift that needs to occur and that will occur within the next five years is this - The realization that the enterprise is a dynamic entity. In other words, it is not something that can ever be fully coded or captured in advance. A 'pre-determined' enterprise family of systems is obsolete before it ever deploys. The other element of the realization is that the key to all integration within the enterprise is already embedded within it. The enterprise as a holistic capability will be achieved once we understand that regardless of the specializations involved, all aspects of the mission are related and that the unifying code embedded throughout it can be managed, mediated and coordinated as a single semantic exercise.

I truly believe that this represents more of a philosophical change than a technical one. It requires new methodologies and IT practices that view problems from this updated perspective. Eventually it will lead to modifications in many commercial software products and networking technologies, but those changes are not necessary to begin experiencing the benefits of the Semantic Enterprise.

Copyright 2008, Semantech Inc.

A Conceptual Framework for Semantic Integration

Let’s take a moment to elaborate on the core premise. What we’re really looking for is a mechanism that can tie together the ever-growing spectrum of specialized information, tools and techniques that we are forced to deal with in a typical enterprise today. The natural trend has pushing away from unified management or control over this environment and we have been playing catch-up for years as we attempt to impose order over enterprise entropy.

This situation applies equally to the development as well as the production environment. The fact is that no single control mechanism has yet been successful at tying together either environment (or both). And as we well know, complexity costs us big – in money, in time and in failure to meet expectations. SOA held promise in that it in contained control elements for both development and production. We are extending this to the next logical step – comprehensive control or at least direction over everything.

But ‘control’ is a frightening term for many, it may imply micromanagement which we know from experience doesn’t work too well in environments where change rules supreme. We don’t wish to stifle innovation or slow down the pace of change – any attempt to do so would surely lead to failure. What we need to do is understand or set the parameters of our known universe, to consciously design it in advance at a high level and guide all of its constituent elements along an evolutionary path that falls with those defined parameters. This could be viewed as ‘loose conformance’ rather than strict compliance.

Our enterprise universe is no longer restricted to any one organization, so the framework for accomplishing this definition must be a shared endeavor. This doesn’t necessarily imply technical standards; technical standards must all be subordinated to the true control mechanism – Semantics. Semantics allows us for the first time to design for scenarios where 100’s or 1000’s of applications share the same type of data and deconflict both their functions and information output.

The conflict between what appears to be redundant functionality and competing data elements is the most serious and complex challenge in every enterprise today. Many solutions have tried to address this by tracking metadata across the enterprise or by imposing governance rules – however both of those attempts still lack the most important key to success – the overall context in which all of the data and rules will operate – across not one but all potential enterprises. Semantic Integration will provide this context.

Copyright 2008, Semantech Inc.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to Semantech's Semantic Integration Blog.

Semantic integration is a relatively new topic of interest represents and completely new way of looking at issues relating to enterprise integration. The goal of this Blog is to help explore the issues and contexts for application of Semantic Integration to real-world integration challenges.

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