elemental links

elemental links blog: new location

Going forward, the elemental links blog and business site will be (finally) co-located at elementallinks.com

To preserve the integrity of inbound links, I am retaining this site.  Existing links to the original path (elementallinks.typepad.com) and the mapped path (blog.elementallinks.net) will bring you here.  All other “elemental links” mappings – in theory – will go to the new site.

The new site has all of my post archives, with your comments, from December 2004 – August 10, 2010. 

The elemental links feed (via feedburner) is now mapped to the new site. 

Please join me at the new, shiny, elemental links. - brenda

gone (business-technology-capability-value) dot-linking …

Ok, even my brother is giving me grief about not blogging.  And he’s not even in tech. Yes.  I’ve been varying degrees of quiet.  Guilty as charged.

As my former CIO always presumed, the longer my silence, the greater likelihood I was up to something.  She was right. Extrapolating forward, I must be up to something.  In fact, I am. 

Over the last 12-18 months, I’ve had several ah-ha moments.  Resulting in seemingly random ideas scattered throughout the business-technology universe.   Luckily, I’ve been doing this long enough to know when I keep circling the same ideas, something will come.  Eventually.

Well, that finally happened.  Emerging from the mystery of background processing, I began to link-these-dots with each other, and within a business value context.  I was so close.

Oddly, a recent rant of mine on Twitter, about the impedance mismatch of the tech industry’s product-orientation with enterprises’ capability-orientation, ended up being my missing link.

Now, I’m quietly (yet excitedly) weaving everything together in a compelling narrative.  No surprise, I started with the framing diagrams.

So, to my brother Alan, and my many supportive readers, please bear with me a little bit longer.  I have a good feeling about this. 

And yes, Guillermo, I will now seriously revisit the “book thing”.

Elemental Links: 2010 Plans

Having already stated my sole 2010 prediction, I want to start the year (decade) by sharing my 2010 plans.   For context, I need to start with my firm, Elemental Links.  The elevator speech:

Elemental Links helps organizations develop business-technology strategies, architectures, and programs to increase business visibility and responsiveness, optimize capability delivery, and enable innovation.

This said, for 2010, my writing, services and workshop offerings will center on the technology strategies, architectural approaches, business-technology programs and techniques that contribute to increased business visibility and responsiveness, optimized capability delivery, and business innovation.

From a business-technology perspective, the above translates to these topical areas:

• Active Information Strategies
• Business Architecture
• Business-IT Integration
• Cloud Computing
• Enterprise Architecture in the 'New Normal'
• Event-Driven Architecture / Event Processing
• Services Architectures

The topic list maps to writings, services and workshops as follows.

Public writings and client-based advisory services will cover each topic, the topic interconnections, and the ties to business forces, actions and value. 

On-site workshops are available in the areas of cloud computing, enterprise architecture, event processing / event-driven architecture and services architectures. 

2010 WORKSHOP PROGRAMS

Cloud Computing:

• Cloud Computing Considerations for Enterprise Practitioners

Event Processing / Event-Driven Architecture

• Event Processing / Event-Driven Architecture Introduction
• Event Processing / Event-Driven Architecture Jump-start
• Event Processing Business Analysis, Flow and Network Design

Enterprise Architecture:

• Enterprise Architecture in the 'New Normal' Introduction
• Enterprise Architecture in the 'New Normal' Jump-start

Services Architectures:

• Business-First Service Analysis Techniques
• Sustaining Services Architecture Success

Consulting services concentrate on three specialization areas: enterprise architecture in the ‘new normal’, event processing / event-driven architecture, and services architectures. 

For more information on any of the above, visit the Elemental Links business site or contact me.

In addition to my current publication venues – elemental links, business-driven architect and elemental cloud computing – I’ll be writing for OMG’s Business Ecology Initiative. 

As well, I have another topical research offering in the works, and perhaps (finally) the first seeds of a book, more on those later.

I have a good feeling about 2010.  I hope you do as well. 

Announcing: Elemental Cloud Computing

The reason I’ve been so quiet lately.  I’ve been putting the finishing touches on Elemental Cloud Computing.

Elemental Cloud Computing is a new research offering dedicated to exploring the opportunities, issues, technologies, offerings and implications of cloud computing from a practitioner perspective.

Key to the practitioner perspective is context.  Context influences the Elemental Cloud Computing (ELCC) research philosophy in two ways.  First, cloud computing is being viewed in the broader context of business, technology, people, and value attainment.

Second, cloud computing is being considered as part of a broader enterprise technology strategy.  This includes understanding the connections and/or potential conflicts between cloud computing and services architecture, information strategies, portfolio management, business architecture, business-driven IT profiles and IT capability delivery.

Although Elemental Cloud Computing is a new research offering, I have been following and writing about the cloud computing space over the course of 2009.  As many know, it started unintentionally, after attending the Open Group’s Cloud Computing Summit in early February.

Shortly afterwards, I published my Unintentional Cloud Watching >> Cloud Watching for Enterprise Architects post on elemental links, and began an intentional study of cloud computing through the lens of an enterprise architect.  

Elemental Cloud Computing is a means to extend, organize and share my intentional cloud watching. Departing from traditional research services, Elemental Cloud Computing contains a mix of original works, formal research, commentary and curated industry content.

Check it out.  Let me know what cloud computing topics are on the top of your list.

Cloud Watching in Vegas: Enterprise Cloud Summit @ Interop

Next week, I’m taking my cloud watching on the road to Vegas.  I’ll be attending and blogging from Interop’s Enterprise Cloud Summit in Las Vegas on May 18-19. 

“Enterprise Cloud Summit at Interop is the industry's only event focused on how traditional enterprises can adopt cloud computing models. Featuring panels of thought leaders, candid conversations with industry luminaries and hands-on real-world demonstrations that showcase the promise - and risk - of on-demand computing, Cloud Summit is a no-holds-barred reality check to help CIOs and senior IT management better understand enterprise cloud computing.”

As most know, my ‘Cloud Watching’ is part of a broader research strategy to convey and discuss the opportunities, issues and offerings of cloud computing with enterprise architects.  Consistent with the Elemental Links consulting and research philosophy, I’m considering cloud computing in the broader context of business, technology, people, and value attainment. 

With my enterprise architect lens, I’m specifically studying the connections between cloud computing and services architecture, business architecture, active information, business-driven IT profiles and IT capability delivery. 

As a consequence of my cloud watching, I’ve got quite the mindmap in progress on cloud computing in the large, and the connection points to the above.  Although I don’t plan to publish the mindmap ‘as-is’ (brain dump), I will be using it to drive my formal research agenda and in conversations with clients.

If you’d like to be on my cloud watching radar (events, offerings, community, thought leadership), or want to discuss your own cloud watching / cloud initiative, please send me an email, or connect on twitter.