WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

WHY IT MATTERS: a pretty good post in favor of breaking down large data lakes according to data domains. 

WHY IT MATTERS: always good to know if your use of technologies is leading edge or bleeding, or if you are missing the boat on techs that everyone else is using. This is one possible way to look at it for software engineers.

WHY IT MATTERS: this tech trends is different than other "lists" in that it analyses a number of topics and provides useful data trends to understand the issues. Well done and very useful. I highlight the change in buying behaviour in the chart I extracted (buyers know what they want more than in the past but sellers have yet to adapt to this new normal) - but I guarantee the report has a bunch more. 

WHY IT MATTERS: we've come to assume hyperlink on the web are blue but where does this come from. The answer will not surprise old geeks like me but the post is an interesting history of hypertext and the creation of the web as we know it today.

WHY IT MATTERS: messaging solutions are evolving rapidly and this review highlights key solutions.

WHY IT MATTERS: interesting to see what are the building blocks of AI solutions. A reference to keep.

WHY IT MATTERS: integrating different systems, especially in the context of cloud-based SaaS solutions, has become the biggest requirement of large system developments in recent digital transformation. For example, it is now common to connect eCommerce systems with CRM, ERP, web and marketing automation solutions. Some come already pre-integrated via extensive marketplaces like that of Shopify. Other solutions and platforms merely expose their API and let others do the connexion. This is where API management becomes essential. Other use case exist.

As with most Gartner MQ, skip the reviews and jump to the market overview and criterias to find out what should be considered in your API tool selection.

WHY IT MATTERS: McKinsey is right to highlight the importance of enterprise architecture in the digital world.

Where they miss the boat in their analysis is that EA is not a ROLE but rather a PRACTICE that many people in the organization should master.

EA provides the tools and methodologies to analyze complex options and determine the most appropriate one. EA looks at business plan, capabilities, data, systems, infrastructure, security and governance required to determine the people, process and technologies needed to deliver value.

They say it best in the article when they suggest to 'Build an architecture mindset across the company" and demand that Enterprise Architects - if such role & title remains relevant - need to work on their soft skills and get their hands dirty.

WHY IT MATTERS: nice one pager summary of key AI concepts, in particular everything around devOps for AI. Warning: this is circa 2017, so key areas are a bit dated.

WHY IT MATTERS: technical debt is an important concept to understand and this guide provides a clear overview of the source and solutions for managing technical debt.

WHY IT MATTERS: this short example shows how far we've come with serverless and event-drive architectures in the cloud, enabling complex processing as a pipeline of small operations. For old dudes like me this is a throwback to the command line pipelines we used to make in Un*x way back when. It makes for very resilient solutions, once you debug the flow. Should be used more often.

WHY IT MATTERS: interesting to read the report associated with this infoQ talk to understand the level of complexity that large software solution have and the methods and tools devised to reduce technology debt that creeps over time.

WHY IT MATTERS: Martin Rousseau highlighted this pattern recently. It represents what we've been doing for years in our practice. Case in point. You need a new eCommerce solution but there is an existing one, integrated with the ERP for years. Full of limitations, yet it works. Impossible to support the new use cases without huge investments and delays. Rip-n-replace is expensive and dangerous, plus you have to keep operating during the 9 to 18 months you build the new one.

This pattern suggests you should build a new solution quickly that leverages extensively the old one and the ERP and the systems in place. Then over time replace parts so that over the course of 3-4 years the old systems can be taken out without pain.

It takes an *exceptional* manager to put this solution forward and corry its execution over time though. Biggest challenge IMHO.

WHY IT MATTERS: because it rains and this is fun.

WHY IT MATTERS: a good overview, well presented of tech trends for executives. Beware: for long-term strategy discussions only!

WHY IT MATTERS: a good and simple intro to the concept.

WHY IT MATTERS: headless solutions are all the rage in web development, including eCommerce. This ebook pulls it all together with good insights and analysis followed by overview of 14 tools. Useful.

WHY IT MATTERS: I find EA to be useful as a practice and approach. However it deployment in organizations often fails because EA architect tend to boil the ocean without bringing value. Agile EA is an interesting concept but again, I fear it may not deliver value. But the approach should inspire and guide solution architects, analysts, managers and other software specialists in organizations.

WHY IT MATTERS: this article explores the cost of cloud computing for large SaaS companies that rely on cloud computing to run and operate their business. The basic argument is that cloud computing is amputating Billions from the market value of those large organizations. It should be read by every software engineer in every corporation and the proposed solutions implemented rapidly.

This statement summarizes the post best: "For a new startup or a new project, the cloud is the obvious choice. And it is certainly worth paying even a moderate “flexibility tax” for the nimbleness the cloud provides. The problem is, for large companies — including startups as they reach scale — that tax equates to hundreds of billions of dollars of equity value in many cases… and is levied well after the companies have already, deeply committed themselves to the cloud (and are often too entrenched to extricate themselves)."

WHY IT MATTERS: an amazing account of the 3 year process to convert existing mobile apps with a new framework to improve software development productivity.

WHY IT MATTERS: testing is always an issue and this ebook highlights advances in tools that help automate the process. Beware of inherent bias in this ebook!

WHY IT MATTERS: customer data platforms are starting to become more integrated into the web platforms. This book is a good summary of what's possible with a CDP. Just beware that there is an obvious bias towards the bloomreach solution - so do not discard the standalone version as they suggest!

WHY IT MATTERS: a nice overview of event driven architecture. Take special note of PROs, CONs and when to use at the end - very important, EDA is not a silver bullet for all problems.

WHY IT MATTERS: sometimes it is better to know what *not* to do.

WHY IT MATTERS: many good links of products and solutions for modern data architectures.