Achieving business objectives through technology standards
Over the last ten years I have focused on cloud computing and seen increased adoption of cloud in enterprises. Companies large and small have adopted Software as a Service (SaaS) and traditional private/public PaaS/IaaS cloud services to expand their digital footprint. In doing so they depend increasingly on an ever-larger supplier community to obtain the digital support required to run their business.
Two years ago, a group of companies from seemingly disparate industries met in San Francisco to discuss the possibility of creating an open standard for process automation. With 30 different companies in attendance at that first meeting, the group quickly recognized the commonalities among them and the need for more flexible manufacturing solutions. Soon after, they launched the Open Process Automation™ Forum (OPAF) under the auspices of The Open Group® to begin work toward developing a standard that would address the common pain points manufacturers in process automation face today.
The Open Group hosted its latest event in the Scottsdale Plaza Hotel, Arizona, January 28 – 31, welcoming over 600 attendees including decision-makers, Enterprise Architects, engineers, technologists and end-users representing many businesses and governments. The theme was ‘Digital in Practice and the Supply Chain’, with a focus on the standards, architectures, and business frameworks that support and enable the transition to a modern Digital Enterprise.
For many of us, each new year is an occasion to look back at the previous year’s accomplishments, as well as look forward to what’s to come over the course of the next year. For the past three years since I took over the reins as CEO of The Open Group, I’ve made it a tradition to take advantage of the new year to do just this, as I’m sure many of you do both in your professional and personal lives.
With the passing of each year, I’m always struck not only by how quickly it goes by, but how many new opportunities arise throughout the year for The Open Group that none of us ever could have predicted. What’s nice for me, from where I sit, is that there is no shortage of new opportunities for us as an organization to do what we’ve always done—to help organizations come together to solve their business problems through open standards.
The Open Group, the vendor-neutral technology standards consortium, is hosting its upcoming event in Scottsdale, Arizona, January 28-31, 2019. The Open Group Scottsdale 2019 will bring together vendors and end user organizations to discuss ’Digital in Practice and the Supply Chain’. Hundreds of attendees are expected including, Enterprise Architects, engineers, technologists, and end-users representing many businesses and governments.
Practicing Enterprise Architects believe TOGAF®, a standard of The Open Group, continues to be well-suited to helping organizations develop the business and IT infrastructures they need to align their business strategies, organizational structures, and capabilities. However, TOGAF users are increasingly looking for additional guidance and industry specific use cases regarding how to use the standard in conjunction with new IT trends—such as Agile development and artificial intelligence—and to address digital and business transformation efforts.
