JISC

Using the e-Framework, Service Oriented and Enterprise Architectures to develop more flexible and better aligned ICT infrastructures

Audience ICT Middle/Senior Managers, Institutional strategists & decision-makers, those adopting/planning to adopt the service orientated approach (SOA)

Session Chair Bill Olivier Development Director for Systems and Technology, JISC

Presenters

• Bill Olivier JISC - Introduction
• Speaker from The Open Group Architecture Framework (TBC)

Objectives of the session

• Understand the e-Framework, its aims & objectives
• Awareness of Enterprise Architectures (EA) and their relationship with Service Orientated Architectures (SOA)
• Understand the use of the e-Framework knowledge base to support SOA development
• Awareness of approaches to developing EAs

This session introduces the e-Framework and the Service Oriented Approach (SOA) to ICT provision which it supports. It also introduces Enterprise Architectures (EA) and Service Orientated Architectures (SOA), as related means for institutions to realise the benefits of the e-Framework.

The international e-Framework Initiative is led by JISC and DEST (Australian Department for Education, Science and Technology) together with the New Zealand Ministry of Education and SURF in the Netherlands.

An EA seeks to align an organisation’s structure and processes, its software and hardware, based on its business needs and objectives. An SOA aligns processes and software, delivered as flexible, loosely coupled services, and is thus seen as a way of providing the core of an EA. Developing an EA is seen as an investment for the future, with measurable benefits over time.

Although the JISC sees the development of an EA or SOA as an institutional responsibility, the e-Framework supports any F/HEI adopting a Service Orientated Approach (SOA). It provides a knowledge base (www.e-framework.org) of information about services, open standards and their effective use. It also supports and provides links to JISC projects evaluating the service oriented approach in practice to determine where and how it is most appropriately applied. The aim is to enable the HE sector to realise the benefits claimed for SOA. These include:

• lower cost interoperability between separately developed applications within and across institutions
• better alignment of ICT infrastructure and organisational processes with strategies and operational goals
• flexible ICT infrastructures that enable institutions to stay on top of changing business, organisational, market and information needs

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