Does Enterprise Architecture Matter?
355826
Readers of this book should also read books on Enterprise Architecture as a solution to the concerns raised by the author.
4052830
DW 2.0 The Architecture for the Next Generation of Data Warehousing, written by W.H Inmon, Derek Strauss and Genia Neushloss, is a excellent book that  provides the details to support DW2.0 as the next generation of architecture for the data warehousing environment.

DW2.0 effectively:

- provides information specifically needed to make sound decisions regarding hiring, technology investments and the disposition of legacy systems
- explains the integration of unstructured data in DW 2.0 environment
thoroughly examines unstructured data, business metadata, statistical and exploration processing, security, granularity and performance
- identifies issues with first data warehouse architecture and provides a road map for migration from 1.0 to 2.0 architecture
- explains the importance of deriving maximum value from all corporate data utilizing the 2.0 architecture; allowing the business to be most effective with the use of their data

Key strengths of DW2 are spelled out in chapters outlining the life cycle of data within the 4 sectors, metadata, technology infrastructure and methodology approach to support ever changing business requirements.

Concepts are presented in a way that will assist businesses in becoming very efficient and cost effective with their data. The figures pictured throughout the book provide an excellent demonstration to the concepts being described.  The literature is extremely informative and provides needed details with straightforward approach which allows for ease of understanding.

I am always impressed with Mr Inmons understanding and breadth of vast industry needs and his passion and foresight to formulate the foundation needed to take companies to the next level!

This is an excellent book and I will recommend this book to my technical, business and management colleagues.
370510
Richard Overman has written an excellent book explaining the importance of examining the assets used in a company for long term reliability, showing a methodology to use for preventive maintenance, risk management and prevention of failure. Most organizations do not consider reliability in asset management, but when they discover that spending time to plan reliability up front, new ventures are much more likely to be successful. I am a software developer, and though Richard's book is geared more toward managing engineering assets, these concepts are universally applicable, and since software is an asset, his reliability principles apply there. It even applies to human resource management, and he uses these as examples.
2412003
After 20 years in the computer industry, I'm finally able to describe what I do in one sentence! This is a book about the nature of architecture, the need for software architects.  I found the detours through the history of architecture interesting, illuminating, and relevant. This book will not teach you to be a software architect, yet, how invaluable it is to understand the nature of this new profession, before we all run out and print new business cards. While the role of software architectect is similar in many ways to what we used to call a systems analyst, this new definition calls for vision and elegance in desgin, leading to more utility and quality in finished systems.
2930004
Data Integration Blueprint and Modeling: Techniques for a Scalable and Sustainable Architecture by Anthony Giordano offers a consistent methodology and practices for integrating data across multiple sources and locations. With today's business focus on gleaning information via analytics on big data sets, it becomes increasingly necessary to focus on data integration techniques. And Giordano's book provides a wealth of knowledge on the subject.

The book is divided into three sections. The first section delivers an overview of data integration including a discussion of the types of data integration (EAI, SOA, ETL, etc.) and outlines a reference architecture for data integration. The second section of the book covers the data integration systems development lifecycle in detail. Each component of the lifecycle is defined and described and a case study using the lifecycle is presented. Finally, in the third section, Giordano discusses data integration in the context of other information management disciplines, including data governance, metadata, and data quality.

If your organization is tackling data integration issues you can learn a lot about getting them under control by reading Anthony Giordano's Data Integration Blueprint and Modeling: Techniques for a Scalable and Sustainable Architecture.
3327277
First of all, I need to say sorry for everybody will read this comment, because I will make English mistakes. ;)

I bought this book mostly, because I am working in SOA project, my company has chosen Web Services for integrating business processes, and there is a Kindle version.

The book is great for me. I could easily note advantages and drawbacks in Architecture decisions, so I can make better choices in my projects. The book is technology agnostic, so you can use the patterns on .Net, Java or something else.
372866
Mr. Zhuk clearly presents the core concepts of SOA and systems architecture.  This manual should be required reading of anyone who professes to be a Systems Architect.
2174459
When I am using tools supported UML, I often search key concept with this book. Because this book is an user guide.
I made some sequence charts, so I use some functions of UML.
I can not understand which architecture is good or not.
I think there are little idea about that.
4385396
As the authors discuss up front, there are traditionally three approaches the to the "baggage" of legacy systems:  replace them by writing new software, replace them by buying off-the-shelf packages, or "wrap" them with modern technologies so they can continue to be used.

The first two approaches tend to throw out the baby with the bathwater.  There's a lot of business value in existing systems, and it takes a lot of analysis and a lot of work to be sure that the useful parts are captured and carried forward, and it sometimes forces unnecessarily disruptive changes on a business to adapt it to new software.  The third approach keeps carting around too much of the bathwater, causing issues that just start with performance and maintenance.

This book charts out another approach: modernization.  A well-balanced modernization approach can sometimes work better than any of the traditional approaches, reducing cost and risk along the way.  The book opens with a discussion of the theory around this, and then follows up with ten diverse case studies illustrating varying modernization ideas and scenarios.

Recommended.
1579789
An outstanding reading for those interested in Enterprise integration. This helped a lot to develop our own approach to integrate our solutions with clients' solutions!
I recommend it!
3312618
It is - in a very positive sense - a revelation that the book from the person who coined the term "Enterprise 2.0" was published years after the initial publications on the subject and, furthermore, quite a bit after many others poured out book after book on "Enterprise 2.0". Many years of thinking, wrestling with concepts and talking to people have gone into that book and that's something one can see if he looks closely.

Within the domain of my work, I came across many frameworks that try to establish the benefits of Enterprise 2.0. But none of them did it with the same balance of business and academic rigueur than Andrew McAfee did: While going through the four case studies, McAfee elegantly introduces the reader to the underlying principles - Granovetter (Strength of Weak Ties), Hayek and Harford (Theory of Knowledge) and Gourville (Behavioral economics and slow rates of adoption) - in order to enable a deep and sound understanding what Enterprise 2.0 is all about.

And with that fundamental knowledge, Enterprise 2.0 is not about tools or even functional domains of interaction anymore - it's suddenly much more about understanding relationships and the way people work together in organizations. An understanding which ultimately enables businesses and organizations to reap the benefits of applying these principles to their problems and to carefully choose a solution that really fits their needs.
3235055
The future of a thinking enterprise - real time decisioning using advanced analytics - is an ideal state many businesses can aspire to achieve. This awesome book provides a roadmap & way forward not only to successfully achieve autonomous analytical decision-making, but also a step change in the way businesses view their enterprise data. Its potentially a game changing work. Certainly the seminal work on the subject.
4401753
I work for a company that builds and extends enterprise applications for other companies.  This book has really helped get our architecture practice in order.

The best thing about this book is that it gives a methodology for designing an architecture based upon business requirements.  This transition from the problem space (needs, features, requirements, etc.) to the solution space (architecture, design, tools, etc.) is glossed over or non-existant in most patterns books as they are oriented on starting at the architecture level (or lower) instead of the business requirements.

We have found this methodology very useful for reducing project risk because we are building upon proven patterns and it has proven very useful for developing quick and concise proposals that demonstrate to our clients that we listened, understood, and have a roadmap for building their solution.

Although the IBM e-business patterns website offers much more information than this book (and it's free), the book is a great asset because it steps you through the high levels of the methodology in a more approachable way.
2941680
First off, I take one star away for the many typos I had to wade through.  But don't let that dissuade you from giving this book your time and attention.

When I first approached Rails, it felt like a framework to build "toy" apps.  And as the author points out, most Rails books promote a superficial treatment of Rails and so you don't get a feel for the kinds of techniques that you can employ to create well-architected apps.  This book changes that.  This book reminds you, if you've forgotten, that tried and true architectural principles can still exist within a Rails application.  So in the end, its a very viable framework for Enterprise applications no matter what people may try to tell you.

This is not a shallow read, however.  I have re-read more than one chapter to ensure that I understood all that was being conveyed.  As such, be ready to focus.  I see that as a selling point, hopefully you do too.

Favorite tips and chapters:

- Code organization: to include creating logical, physical, service, and utility folders to separate layers
- Organizing apps with plugins -- which are more vertical than what you may be used to
- Use the database -- RI, triggers, SPs, views, etc should still be part of your architecture
- Employ a SOA architecture for better compartmentalization
- Shared client service plugins

The community needs more books like this, IMHO.  Great job, Dan!
645994
This is the first book which shows how to build Webservices using well defined architectural patterns. This book has an excellent case study based introduction and discusses Web services architecture to begin with and tides over how to apply Java based design patterns to ease development. This books contains an excellent catalog of 20 Web services patterns and its Java implementation.
The authors managed to introduce all patterns while anchoring the presentation with a practical and interesting discussion of real world case study. This approach makes this book succeed on all levels, both in presenting essential patterns and demonstrating how these designs often work together in real Web services.
This book is a perfect companion guide for choosing patterns in real implementation. This book does not introduce and walkthrough Web services standards and Java APIs, for that we chose to use "Developing Java Web services - Wiley Press" book, very helpful.
In all, this book will be absolutely required reading for anyone who lays claim to be an Architect on today's Web services.
4140417
If you buy this book it will change the way you think about software design and architecture. I am sure that it will give you a different perspective about architecting an application and it will enhance your knowledge about analyzing a service and involving legacy applications in the design phase. This book is strong on explaining what type of software components you will need to embed in your architecture. The most contributing part of this book is the recommended diagrams & modeling patterns that you as a developer, an architect, a business analyst, or project manager will need for articulating service design.

My company is currently adopting this book as our service development guide which includes the recommended diagrams and service modeling patterns and deliverables.
260847
As a follow-up to his first book, "Deadlines and Duct Tape: How to Manage the I.T. Function from a Business Perspective", the author continues educating the reader on the Enterprise Architecture (EA) journey of how corporations must strategically architect their systems from the business standpoint, not just ITs understanding of those systems and relationships. As Cloud Computing continues to be defined and evolve throughout the business world, this new book introduces some excellent EA design principles and visual techniques of how grounding your EA function strategically within the organization will facilitate a more targeted, successful approach to designing and upgrading your business information systems in the future.