As an IT Architect how do you measure success (II)?

In respect to what KPI your organization follows or not, The simplest way for IT architect (matters any Architect) to measure his/her success is:

1) Develop your growth plan for short term and long term, what and where you want to be.
2) Knowledge Acquisition in changing business demands.
3) Build a design or solutions were all business elements (People process and Technology) are met and bridge all the gaps.
4) Achieve excellency in your work to gain buy-in for all your plans and designs.
5) Request Testimonial/Recommendations for your work (efforts are useless if you're not appreciated).

If you are done with above, you are on TOP success list, rest will follow :)

Rich Internet Applications Using Flex, Salesforce.com and Google App Engine

Very interesting reading here

As an IT Architect how do you measure success (I)?

In my opinion the success is measured by:

Was the solution implemented?
Did it provide the expected results?
and finally, Is the solution flexible enough to withstand change?

I mention the last one because IT is built on top of change. Any IT Architect (of any vertical) must incorporate the change aspect on its solutions. Please do not reduce the support for change just to the upgrades and additions to the solution. The end-of-life, disposal and deployment of new solutions also counts as change.

Proverbes du jour

• Il faut bonne mémoire après qu'on a menti. (Pierre Corneille)

• On respecte un homme qui se respecte lui-même. (Honoré de Balzac)

• Je ne pense jamais au futur, il vient assez tôt. (Albert Einstein)

Is the "Cloud Computing" a new concept?

Right, in the 1960s John McCarthy thought that Cloud computing would be a public utility and published about it in 1961. You can read about his career in nascent "Cloud computing" here

Telling the difference between cloud and smoke

I'd like to point you to a nice blog article that has a technical checklist for a service to be called 'cloud-based' Read more here

Another article here (amazon has its problems as well, so do your homework first)

EA What is it?

Enterprise architecture is an integrated combination of Business Strategy + Business Architecture + Business Culture + Technology Architecture.
The “fundamental conflict among the so-called experts” is not about the contents of EA, if anything, it is about the relative significance and contribution of each aspect. Pro vs. Anti IT is about relative significance and contribution of IT (or business strategy, business architecture, etc.) at a particular point in time.

The ‘how to do it’ question is entirely different and is concerned with frameworks, methodologies, techniques, training, etc. There are “coherent, rational, theoretically and empirically sound EA methodologies”.

Rebuild a Jeep under 4 minutes

Earth Hour observed at UN Headquarters (25th March 2011 )

Earth Hour observed at UN Headquarters in New York on Saturday, 25th March 2011 | Picture Credit: Bo Li