The Federal Enterprise Architecture is combining market savvy networking services with business and technology architectures to reduce costs & inc...
The Federal Enterprise Architecture is combining market savvy networking services with business and technology architectures to reduce costs & increase services
As with most businesses today,
the government, at all levels, is looking to reduce, reuse and recycle its investments of time, money, and the workforce employed to make things happen. At the highest levels of government a Federal Enterprise Architecture is being designed and implemented that will allow it to identify ways to simplify processes, reduce costs and more effectively share data, information and resources across the boundaries of agencies as well as businesses.
This FEA is a business driven framework that should ideally allow for the delivery of services that are centered on the citizens using them, provide for a more results oriented outcome and ideally be market-based and driven.
In order for the Federal Enterprise Architecture to be successful a framework is being created which allows for the implementation of virtualization and cloud computing technologies. Ideally, this should provide every opportunity for success in the government data centers.
By aligning the enterprise architecture with business needs, the FEA is developing the channels necessary to help convert systems of a 200 year old organization; transforming itself from a stovepipe organized entity into one aligned with how modern business operates. The data and application organization required for most modern businesses to compete and succeed today needs to be translated to how the federal, state and local government entities operate as well.
With the leading providers developing and promoting the value and power of using the network to deliver both data and applications, being able to ensure that technology aligns with business directives is an important clarification for the Federal Enterprise Architecture initiative.
While still relatively new to the marketplace, network based services may be the answer to providing solutions government needs to implement while staying within the bounds of limiting resources. Time, money, speed of implementation and other factors have to be considered when deciding on how best to provide tools and resources.
Developing the infrastructure which allows government agencies to outsource often times redundant (and expensive) services, the FEA by way of network services should allow for that sought after customer centric solution that both maximizes budget, and also makes for a more efficient operation.
Too often in the past, the silos of various agencies have unwittingly conspired to develop infrastructures which are duplicated a number of times over. With the advent of the FEA, however, a fresh approach to converting, downsizing and re-allocating resources should provide access to data and processing necessary to actually elevate any specific agencies capacity to perform its duties, as related to computational, networking and storage.
Cloud computing, specifically enabling the use of private clouds and federated access to additional external resources should allow for the government's ability to build a firm foundation of business oriented computational data interactivity.
The importance of not falling back into the trap of designing walled gardens of knowledge is a firm feature of the current FEA design. The market has a number of quality solutions which should allow for the architects of this new model to find success.
The networked services should allow for the FEA's performance reference model to effectively measure and transmit that measurement data. This will provide for accurate and constant information to effectively and efficiently monitor systems.
The business reference model will provide the architecture a design that allows for efficient use and organization of data and services based upon terms of function and modes of delivery. Gone are the days of every agency for itself.
Finally, a well thought out and designed service component reference model will provide inter-agency ability to reuse applications, components and business services. This factor alone should not only pay for the new systems development and delivery, but actually provide for effective cost reductions in the short term.
By developing the Federal Enterprise Architecture on top of network service oriented foundations, the long term cost savings are also huge. Plus, by properly realigning where time, money and resources are expended for computing and processing, the government can now stay in touch with the market and take advantage of technology as it's being developed for the business and consumer.
