2.0 Service Architecture – A Conceptual Framework (Part 1)

In my post on ‘The Enterprise 2.0 Opportunity’ I had shared my thoughts on opportunities to implement and/or integrate 2.0 style services that fostered social dynamics and network effects for organizational benefits in the context of core business functions like internal collaboration, B2B, and CRM/B2C. Materialization of the Enterprise 2.0 Opportunity is eventually achieved through the integration of 2.0 services at/across these edges and with core line of business systems supported by the Enterprise IT infrastructure.

If you are an Enterprise technology decision maker chartered with the responsibility to make a recommendation on an actionable technology investment strategy to materialize an Enterprise 2.0 roadmap, the following are thoughts (in no specific order) that are you are likely already wrestling with or will be wrestling with soon:

Architecturally speaking how should I be envisioning the solution layers and building blocks that collectively constitute a framework for Enterprise 2.0 investments?

Is it possible to materialize the desired capabilities without disrupting our core existing IT infrastructure?

What would be a pragmatic investment strategy in the context of materializing the capabilities – self-implement, buy & integrate, or an hybrid approach?

What about cloud computing options? Are there cloud services that we could subscribe to and integrate with to address all or some of our requirements?

How do we ensure that the services which enable the desired capabilities integrate seamlessly with our existing line of business systems – internal, B2B, CRM/B2C etc.

How should we approaching these projects from an SDLC perspective…it seems like the classic Enterprise SDLC practices would be counter productive to delivering and materializing ROI from Enterprise 2.0 projects?

Given the high degree of user centricity and user empowerment in the 2.0 culture, how do we account for governance in the context of core Enterprise assets that support the experiences?

What other hard problems should we be thinking about in advance and how do we plan for them without impacting agility in execution & delivery?

All tough questions that need to be thought through and addressed by technology decision makers.

The following is a Conceptual Architecture that I had drawn up when working on Project Kobe (a Web 2.0 service development resource kit). This Conceptual Architecture can serve as a valuable framework to guide architectural and implementation decision making during the course of a 2.0 service development project:

You can watch this MSL (Microsoft Learning) snack to get an overview of the application of this framework in the context of planning, architecting, and implementing Web 2.0 services. If you are experienced in the Microsoft Platform, you can also download the sample project included in the Project Kobe Resource Kit to explore an implementation that applies the framework in the context of sample consumer style Web 2.0 service.

A number of the concepts discussed in the snack videos and the resources included in the Project Kobe Resource Kit also apply to Enterprise 2.0 initiatives. In part 2 of this post I will discuss the conceptual architecture illustrated above in greater detail and more specifically in the Enterprise 2.0 context.

That’s it for today. More to follow soon…

Cheers!
Karthik

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