Recent Posts by Bob Rhubart

At its most basic, IT architecture, regardless of your specific role on the architect food chain, is about the plan to get from Point A to Point B. While the focus of that transition is on technology and software, that transition is also about people -- at least until SkyNet is complete and the machines don't need us.  But seriously... Architecture is as much about people as it about software, and architecture without effective organization is just a bunch of scribbles on a...

Writing on his CounterIntuitive blog, Forrester CEO and founder George F. Colony offers his take on how the current recession will affect technology. The news is far from depressing, however, and each of the five factors he lists are unquestionably important. But two factors jumped out at me. There's this: 2) Transformation and innovation will lead recovery. CIOs and CEOs are telling me that they plan to change their way out of this mess. Goldman Sachs is scoping best...

Somebody is racking up some serious frequent-flyer miles... The North American leg of the Oracle Fusion Middleware world tour has already passed through Houston, New York, Philadelphia, Detroit,  Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, and Seattle. Next week events will be held in Pittsburgh and Baltimore, not to mention upcoming events in South America, EMEA, and APAC. This is an enormous undertaking, and will eventually comprise about 100 events around the globe (more dates are being added...

The winners of the 2008 Oracle Magazine Editor's Choice Awards have been announced, and I'd be falling down on the job if I didn't take a moment to give props to the winners in the Architect categories:  Green IT Architect of the Year Jan Shook, Principal Member, Applications Staff, Verizon Wireless Orangeburg, New York SOA Governance Architect of the Year Bryan A. Mjaanes, Vice President, Zurich Financial Services Group Schaumburg, Illinois Oracle Enterprise Manager Architect John...

It's difficult not to be distracted these days by the sucking sound coming from the general direction of my 401k.  A sluggish economy can be a scary thing, but you know what they say about what happens to some people when the going gets tough, right? In a recent post, Insight-Driven Retailing blogger David Dorf observes the behavior of retailers who exemplify the "tough get going" attitude: They are always reducing costs, especially in IT. But they know that sometimes in order...

In a recent post InfoWorld blogger David Linthicum poses an interesting question regarding the role of technology and tools in an effective SOA governance practice: Can SOA governance technology be distracting?  In answering that question Linthicum offers this: The real issue is how you defined SOA governance. If you define it as a systemic concept to SOA, and build it into your SOA project plan as a concept, that's fine. If you define it as technology or tools, then chances...

A couple of months before the clock started ticking on Joe the Plumber's fifteen minutes of fame, Technology Edge blogger J Schwan used similarly named characters (Bob the Business Stakeholder, Pam the Project Manager, Art the Architect) to illustrate an important point about communication, cooperation, and the responsibilities that connect the proliferate roles in IT. The names may be corny, but the issue Schwan addresses -- and he does it quite well -- is as serious as...

Last spring, back when getting through the front page of the Wall Street Journal didn't require a handful of powerful tranquilizers, I wrote a post about the importance of innovation in an unforgivably competitive business environment. These days, with the Magic Economic Eight Ball offering tepid prognostications that range from "Reply hazy, try again" to "Better not tell you now," does innovation still matter?  Ask Insight-Driven Retailing blogger David Dorf:  What will...

This is my third post in as many days on the effects of the the tanking economy on IT, and threat to Wall Street pedestrians increasing hourly, it looks like there will be ample opportunities for more... In this economy it is inevitable that already snug IT budgets will become tighter than the t-shirt on a champion pizza eater. But really, hasn't IT always been about cutting business costs, even when budgets were more generous?  So is what's going on now really all that...