Despite general agreement among researchers and academics of the need for board-level involvement in IT governance, it appears that in practice this is more the exception than the rule. Given the prevalence of this issue, we have sought to answer the question, “What is the state of the art of the research domain of board-level IT governance?” In this Executive Update, we share our findings on the various determinants, theories, and outcomes surrounding board-level IT governance and share some practical guidance.

Despite general agreement among researchers and academics of the need for board-level involvement in IT governance, it appears that in practice this is more the exception than the rule. Given the prevalence of this issue, we have sought to answer the question, “What is the state of the art of the research domain of board-level IT governance?” In this Executive Update, we share our findings on the various determinants, theories, and outcomes surrounding board-level IT governance and share some practical guidance.

In this Advisor, I highlight the need to understand the optimal granularity level in analytics to maximize business value. I also point to the need for business owners and strategists to incorporate context in analytics in a balanced manner in ascertaining the granularity levels. Granularity levels can vary dynamically depending on the needs of the business. Due consideration to such dynamicity ensures that time, cost, and corresponding use of resourcing in undertaking analytics are all utilized to provide maximum value to the business.

APIs are bringing about new opportunities by creating new channels for partnerships, promoting brands, and experimenting with customer-influenced innovative solutions and alternate business models. In this Advisor, I explore the spectrum of APIs. Knowing the spectrum of APIs and how they work helps formulate and guide API and software strategy, aids in decision making on interfacing architecture, and helps assess readiness from business, technical, compliance, and risk perspectives.

Traditional analytics is generally restricted to merely providing a better understanding of historical data or predicting future business outcomes. Consequently, the potential of traditional analytical processes is limited as they only offer insights and patterns based on data provided but they lack the ability to offer or make business recommendations. Prescriptive analytics, however, is substantially different and more powerful because it allows businesses to not only make predictions but also suggests an optimal solution.

This Advisor considers the impact of the Internet of Things (IoT) on traditional business and technology architectures and introduces the role of EA as an effective methodology for developing and implementing IoT strategies. 

Here in Part III, we begin to explore what type of process might be employed at a business analysis level when using the ADF, starting with an examination of some ADF activities and thinking about the inputs, steps, and outputs produced. We then delve into how business analysis fits into the ADF for the early and continuous delivery of valuable system capabilities.

Empowering the people who face the customer to drive business decisions is a hallmark of the Agile organization. Agile leadership, explored in this Advisor, replaces command and control in the Agile organization.

The new frontier for competition is the entire customer experience (CX) — from thinking about a purchase to the renewal (of a service) or replacement (of a product).

The best response to digital disruption from the EA team is to examine the dis­ruption, understand the implications in terms of the components and configuration of the architecture (i.e., translate them into architectural thinking), and present options for responding as potential changes to the architecture. The important thing is to present these options as clearly as possible so that stakeholders can make architecturally informed decisions.

Core computer vision and imaging technologies include facial recognition, image recognition, character recognition, medical image recognition, video analysis, and autonomous driving visioning systems. Organizations are now applying such core vision and image recognition technologies to enhance a myriad of applications across many industries.

Understanding certain perspectives of privacy allows us to detail why it is important in the context of blockchain, distributed ledger, and smart contract technology. Thus, questioning the importance of privacy to anyone deploying the technology, using the technology, or regulating the technology, is important. How is a blockchain different than any database? How is it used differently than normal databases? What are the implications of deploying an immutable record of information in a distributed consensus network? How is the technology used in blockchains different from any other information or data storage technology? These are the questions firms should be asking as they attempt to understand the concept and its implications on an active, and evolving, basis.

While cash still has its place in society, we cannot ignore the growing digitization of money. If digital forms of commerce simplify users’ lives and make it easier for customers to get what they want, when they want it, we can expect to see a much more rapid migration toward merchant mobile applications.

This Advisor offers a model that identifies the big data capa­bilities needed to connect data analysis with a specific business context and to do it quickly. 

Cutter Consortium’s Technical Due Diligence for Acquisitions ensures an unbiased assessment of the software, software architecture, technology, security, and technology skills of your potential acquisition. Discover the value and SWOTs of your target company’s current-state systems.

Cutter Consortium’s Technical Due Diligence for Acquisitions ensures an unbiased assessment of the software, software architecture, technology, security, and technology skills of your potential acquisition. Discover the value and SWOTs of your target company’s current-state systems.

In this Advisor, we provide a database perspective on business continuity. Starting from a contingency plan, we elaborate on various single points of failure: availability and accessibility of storage devices, availability of database functionality, and availability of the data itself. 

This article discusses the Industrial Internet along with the IoT applications and domains that are most likely to benefit from edge computing.

This article discusses the Industrial Internet along with the IoT applications and domains that are most likely to benefit from edge computing.

This issue of Cutter Business Technology Journal offers perspectives from seven authors on fog/edge computing to bring some sunlight to the challenges, benefits, and possible uses of these emerging technologies.

This issue of Cutter Business Technology Journal offers perspectives from seven authors on fog/edge computing to bring some sunlight to the challenges, benefits, and possible uses of these emerging technologies.

The authors address the criteria for operating unmanned aerial vehicles, or “aerial drones,” in a fog architecture. The use of drones in supply chain delivery offers faster, more cost-effective delivery but also poses myriad concerns, ranging from collision to security risks, as well as regulatory concerns.

The authors address the criteria for operating unmanned aerial vehicles, or “aerial drones,” in a fog architecture. The use of drones in supply chain delivery offers faster, more cost-effective delivery but also poses myriad concerns, ranging from collision to security risks, as well as regulatory concerns.

The OpenFog Reference Architecture for fog computing has emerged as a highly credible paradigm for architecting compute-intensive solutions for networks and applications that utilize IoT, 5G, and artificial intelligence. In this article, we’ll examine how fog architecture addresses cybersecurity for next-generation networks.

The OpenFog Reference Architecture for fog computing has emerged as a highly credible paradigm for architecting compute-intensive solutions for networks and applications that utilize IoT, 5G, and artificial intelligence. In this article, we’ll examine how fog architecture addresses cybersecurity for next-generation networks.