Enterprise Architecture A to Z: Frameworks, Business Process Modeling, SOA, and Infrastructure Technology

Driven by the need and desire to reduce costs, organizations are faced with a set of decisions that require analytical scrutiny. Designing State-of-the-Art Data Centers examines cost-saving trends in planning, administration, and management. To establish a framework for discussion, this book begins by evaluating the role of Enterprise Architecture planning and Service Oriented modeling. The text presents an assessment of storage technologies and networking as well as addresses regulatory and security issues. Additional coverage includes high-speed communication mechanisms such as Ethernet, WAN and Internet communication technologies, broadband communications, and chargeback models.

About the Author

Daniel Minoli has many years of technical-hands-on and managerial experience (including budget or PL responsibility) in enterprise architecture, IT, telecom, and networking for financial companies and global carriers. He has worked at organizations such as AIG, Prudential Securities, and Capital One Financial, and carriers such as ARPA think tanks, Bell Telephone Laboratories, ITT, Bell Communications Research (now Telcordia), AT&T, Leading Edge Networks Inc., and SES Americom. Recently, he also played a founding role in the launching of two companies through the high-tech incubator Leading Edge Networks LLC, which he ran in the early 2000s: Global Wireless Services, a provider of secure broadband hotspot mobile Internet and hotspot VoIP services; and, InfoPort Communications Group, an optical and Gigabit Ethernet metropolitan carrier supporting data center/SAN/channel extension and Grid Computing network access services.

His work in enterprise architecture covers a number of layers of the TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework) model, with special focus on the technology (infrastructure) architecture. This synthesis is based on his network infrastructure architecture mandate at Capital One Financial. Over the years he has done work in secure data centers, disaster recovery, business continuity, storage area networks, broadband communications, bandwidth-on-demand, and on-demand computing. His forward-looking disaster recovery work started in the early 1980s, and grid computing work started in the late 1980s. He has done work in platform architecture (blade technology, server consolidation, tiered storage, and processor and storage virtualization). He has also done work in Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), business processing modeling (BPM), and Unified Modeling Language (UML), and has modeled the entire technology architecture of a financial firm (platforms, storage, networks, desktops, and databases) in ARIS and with an SOA focus. He is the author of the well-received 2005 Wiley book: A Networking Approach to Grid Computing. In 2004 he organized a session for the ENTNET (Enterprise Networking) Conference at SUPERCOMM on virtualization and Grid Computing applications for commercial users, and was the 2006 Tutorial Chair for the ENTNET 2006, again with a focus on virtualization and Grid Computing.

Mr. Minoli has also written columns for ComputerWorld, NetworkWorld, and Network Computing (1985–2006). He has taught at New York University (Information Technology Institute), Rutgers University, Stevens Institute of Technology, and Monmouth University (1984–2006). Also, he was a Technology Analyst-at-Large for Gartner/DataPro (1985–2001); based on extensive hands-on work at financial firms and carriers, he tracked technologies and wrote approximately 50 distinct CTO/CIO-level technical/architectural scans in the area of telephony and data systems, including topics on security, disaster recovery, IT outsourcing, network management, LANs, WANs (ATM and MPLS), wireless (LAN and public hotspot), VoIP, network design/economics, carrier networks (such as metro Ethernet and CWDM/DWDM), and e-commerce. Over the years he has advised venture capitalists for investments of $150M in a dozen high-tech companies, and has acted as expert witness in a (won) $11B lawsuit regarding a VoIP-based wireless Air-to-Ground communication system.