Section 1.11. Why does ESA matter?

1.11. Why does ESA matter?

ESA matters most because for the first time in IT history, we have a blueprint for all levels of the enterprise architecture. We have a blueprint not just for an application, but also for a platform for flexible automation of business processes.

ESA matters because it provides the ability to align the business architecture, the application architecture, and the technology architecture using a framework that allows all aspects to understand each other. ESA brings the three basic levels together using enterprise services as a common building block.

ESA matters because it standardizes business semantics by providing services that can be used to implement standards and make them useful, or to model and implement relationships among companies.

ESA matters because it makes flexible composite applications possible. When the complexity of applications is encapsulated in reusable enterprise services that are orchestrated through modeling, new ideas can come to life more quickly, a culture of innovation can be created, and the experience gained each day in interacting with customers can be put to work more rapidly to improve the business.

ESA matters because it bridges the gap between buy versus build. Instead of buying an application and having to live with whatever can be configured or customized at a high cost, ESA provides products as composite applications based on models that can be changed in part where it makes sense for a business. The paradigm becomes buy, build, and compose where you need to.

ESA matters because it delivers a different IT, one that is not a bottleneck and a barrier, but a lever and a springboard. We will expand on these topics in Chapters 2 and 3.