2 CONCEPTUAL ARCHITECTURE
LAYERS
As shown, these supporting elements also form a hierarchical formation, a layered structure
on which architectural concepts can be established. Why is there such a dependency between
business, technological, and architectural abstractions? Imagine an enterprise architecture that
is not influenced by its business or technological environments. Is it possible? Can any architectural
implementation be disengaged from the technological environment that empowers its
operation? Moreover, can a technological environment exist without driving business imperatives?
Can infrastructure, middleware, networks, and communication be founded without an
obvious business necessity? The answers to these questions are undoubtedly clear: There must be
a correlation between business strategies, the technological environment, and architectural concepts.
Thus, the business and technological layers that support the architectural concepts are not
only the major building blocks of any architectural initiative in an enterprise but the very essence
of an architectural strategy and best practices. A detailed explanation of each layer is given in
the sections that follow.
BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT. The driving force behind most architecture initiatives in an enterprise
is business necessity. In fact, business imperatives should both sponsor architecture planning
and implementation and provide the context and justification for the establishment of architectures
in the enterprise.
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