Enterprise Architecture for Digital Business

Afterword: Digital Changes Everything

Geng Lin, F5 CTO, and Lori MacVittie, F5 principal technical evangelist

Some of the most popular tourist destinations around the world are cities in which historical buildings still remain. Walk through storied cities across the globe and you will find a mix of old and new architecture that delivers a unique experience for visitors. Even in relatively newer cities you will find aged buildings that have been modernized but retain the rich flavor of their original construction.

This is the task that you have likely undertaken: not to start anew, but to transform an existing architecture into a modern one with the ability to enable a digital business. While the temptation to raze the old and start anew is often strong—after all, technical debt can be as daunting to deal with as financial debt—much is lost in the process.

Archaeologists revel in discovering buried cities of old, driven by the opportunity to better understand the past to guide the future. But as much as archaeologists celebrate such discoveries, they also lament the loss of knowledge that comes from burying the buildings of the past.

This holds true in the enterprise as well. The history of an organization can be read in its current architecture. Throughout the process of modernization, it is important not to lose that history and the insights—and lessons—it provides into business decisions. This is a valuable asset and a more compelling reason to avoid burying it under a new architecture ...