Next-Generation Analytics: Is it a Data Lake or a Data Mart?

Vince Kellen
The rise of cloud technologies and continued technical advances in computing architectures have dramatically altered how we design data warehouses, but we continue to see both IT staff and vendors continue to recreate the old data warehouse. As we explore in this Advisor, with the new technologies that are available, instead of having two architectures — one for data lakes and the other for data warehouses — a single “new rules” architecture can handle both.

Data Strategy: From Vision to Roadmap, Part I — Vision

Richard Veryard
In Part I of this three-part Executive Update series, we look at the myriad ways that data can operate in your organization. In Part II, we will take the concept further and examine the four dimensions of information superiority in greater detail. Finally, Part III will show how all this impacts building an effective roadmap toward creating a data-driven business.

Data Strategy: From Vision to Roadmap, Part I — Vision

Richard Veryard
In Part I of this three-part Executive Update series, we look at the myriad ways that data can operate in your organization. In Part II, we will take the concept further and examine the four dimensions of information superiority in greater detail. Finally, Part III will show how all this impacts building an effective roadmap toward creating a data-driven business.

Learning to Lead Collective Creativity, Part II: Leading So That No One Is Following

Daniel Hjorth, Robert Austin, Shannon Hessel
In creative ensembles where leadership isn’t an assigned role or position, a series of actions or behaviors enables collective creativity and can be enacted by every member of the team. In these groups, it’s imperative that every member participates in leadership actions and is prepared to take the lead at any moment.

How to Succeed with LC/NC Solu­tions

Greg Smith, Michael Papadopoulos, Joshua Sanz, Michael Grech, Heather Norris
To ensure success when implementing low-code/no-code solutions, companies should consider the five important priorities described in this Advisor.

How to Succeed with LC/NC Solu­tions

Greg Smith, Michael Papadopoulos, Joshua Sanz, Michael Grech, Heather Norris
To ensure success when implementing low-code/no-code solutions, companies should consider the five important priorities described in this Advisor.

Low-Code/No-Code-enabled Citizen Developers: Catalysts to Innovation

Greg Smith, Michael Papadopoulos

In today’s highly competitive environment, it can be challenging to fulfill the development and operational demands needed to keep your businesses running while also continuing to expand and enhance your digital capabilities. This is where “citizen developers” can help — and where “low-code/no-code” (NC/LC) solutions shine.


Low-Code/No-Code-enabled Citizen Developers: Catalysts to Innovation

Greg Smith, Michael Papadopoulos

In today’s highly competitive environment, it can be challenging to fulfill the development and operational demands needed to keep your businesses running while also continuing to expand and enhance your digital capabilities. This is where “citizen developers” can help — and where “low-code/no-code” (NC/LC) solutions shine.


Assessing the Value of EA with Metrics

Brian Cameron
This Advisor explores the critical need to assess or evaluate the value of EA through the use of metrics or measures to demonstrate the specific strategic business value that EA brings to a particular organization.

How Business Architecture Can Help Achieve UN Sustainable Development Goals: A Q&A

Whynde Kuehn
In a recent webinar, Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Whynde Kuehn discussed how organizations can leverage business architecture to support the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This Advisor shares the Q&A session that followed.

The Cutter Edge: Life and Data in a Time of Pandemic, Never Waste a Good Crisis, more!

Cutter Consortium
This week's Cutter Edge explores the challenge we face in ensuring the data we collect and analyze promotes a better life for all on this planet, rather than increasing the imbalances and dysfunctional behaviors; why we need to break out of familiar patterns in order to be open to innovation; and more.

The Cutter Edge: Life and Data in a Time of Pandemic, Never Waste a Good Crisis, more!

Cutter Consortium
This week's Cutter Edge explores the challenge we face in ensuring the data we collect and analyze promotes a better life for all on this planet, rather than increasing the imbalances and dysfunctional behaviors; why we need to break out of familiar patterns in order to be open to innovation; and more.

Settlement Could Set Regulatory Precedent for Unauthorized Use of Consumer Data

Curt Hall

A recent settlement between the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and photo app developer Everalbum, Inc. could have significant repercussions for organizations developing machine learning (ML) and other artificial intelligence (AI) models using consumer data. The settlement requires Everalbum to delete the face recognition models and algorithms it allegedly developed by using photos and videos uploaded by its users.


SAP HANA for Maximum Competitive Advantage

Improve critical enterprise systems management. Developed by Cutter Fellow and UC San Diego CIO Vince Kellen and his colleagues, this approach applies "new rules" for governing data analytics and leverages the SAP HANA environment to achieve next generation data warehousing success. 

More on Implementing Business Agility: A Q&A

Borys Stokalski, Aleksander Solecki
In a recent webinar, Cutter Senior Consultant Borys Stokalski and Aleksander Solecki explored the processes and practices that support business agility from the perspectives of value innovation and product portfolio management. In this Advisor, we share the Q&A session that followed.

The Biggest Digital Transformation Risk Is Human

Noah Barsky
Digital transformation is the hottest trend and spend in technology circles these days. But how can employees possibly transform a business that they don’t fully understand?

How New Database Technologies Are Turning Data Analytics Rules Upside Down

Vince Kellen

Most analytics solutions designers today are using 30-year-old mental models around scarcity of compute and are thus crippling their designs, not fully realizing how radically different 21st-century analytics has become. The recent leap forward in database and analytics technology includes streaming technologies like Apache’s Kafka, which can handle real time and can scale to handle big data movement at extremely low cost; and high-speed, in memory analytics tools like SAP HANA, which makes mincemeat out of billion-row data sets.


EA Programs: Prove Your Value in Digital Transformation Efforts

Avinash Malik
In the enterprise architecture (EA) anti-pattern described in this Advisor, the EA team primarily functions to review projects in the architecture review board (ARB). Each IT project is given a series of standards that it is expected to meet, and at various checkpoints in the software development process, the project team submits a document to the ARB for review. Your enterprise architects are there to be, essentially, a “forcing function.” 

3 Ways to Keep Your Options Open

Olivier Pilot, Michael Papadopoulos, Michael Eiden
While it is impossible to predict the future, the ability to adapt to what we already know is most likely to prompt a solution’s future pivot can make the difference between an elegantly evolving architecture and one that must be thrown away. In our experience, the patterns and techniques discussed in this Advisor are useful for keeping our digital and data architectures open to changes.

The Opportunities of Next-Generation Innovative Business Modeling

Zion Schum, Isaiah Morales, Roger Yin
The next generation of business and associated business models is being ushered in by blockchain’s versatility in creating and exchanging value. The opportunities are boundless, but first we must transition from our current infrastructure. Today, the data network proto­cols establish the rules of the Internet and facilitate its use. Most of the value these protocols create is absorbed by just a few companies — either by operating and distributing Internet access or governing the appli­cations that make it easier to use. Only recently has blockchain emerged to offer businesses the chance to capture the value that will come from next-generation Internet protocols.

Ingredients for Enterprise Agility, Part I: The Countdown to Enterprise Agility

Jon Ward
This article is the first in a series of Advisors that will outline some of my lessons from leading Agile transformations. Getting started with Agile involves some organizational preparation; hence, the countdown to enterprise agility is the subject of this Advisor.

Digital Transformation: Shifting the Mindset from Cost to Investment

Sunny Ray, Joab Meyer, Karl Johnson
We have set out to “demystify digital transformation” through interviews with a cross-section of senior leaders at seven firms in a variety of industries. As we conduct our research, a comprehensive view of how mindsets must evolve to enable this transformation within firms is emerging. One of our most prominent initial observations centers on the digital mindsets of leaders; this mindset determines whether an organization’s digital transformation gains traction or flounders.

Business Architecture: Answering the Call to Achieve UN Sustainable Development Goals

Whynde Kuehn
In this on-demand webinar, Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Whynde Kuehn discusses how organizations can leverage business architecture to support the UN’s SDGs. You will learn how to determine which SDGs are relevant to your organization, thereby aligning motivation with action, and how to set internal objectives and metrics to help your organization achieve its desired level of contribution. Furthermore, you will explore how to leverage business architecture across organizational boundaries to facilitate collaboration on SDG achievement.

DevSecOps: 7 Metrics to Measure Culture Change

Kristin Curran, David Lipton, Steven Woodward
Orga­nizational culture change is disruptive, but along with implementing a DevSecOps culture, the integrated security, and the automation, the comfort we crave is just as accessible. Communication and transparency allow DevSecOps and organizational culture change to thrive, facilitating its continued relevance and growth. But how do we measure culture change? In this Advisor, we identify a logical set of seven incremental steps to measure culture change.

Find the Sweet Spot on the Path to an “Agile Architecture”

Svyatoslav Kotusev
Instead of trying random “Agile” or “traditional” planning approaches prescribed by famous industry gurus and institutions, organizations should consciously find their “sweet spots” along the various dimensions of agility. This path will save dollars.