Day 1 Highlights

The first day of The Open Group IT Architecture Practitioners Conference kicked off with an overview of The Open Group and updates from The Open Group Forums, which outlined work since the last conference and a glimpse of the future.

Following a great introduction from Allen Brown, President & CEO of The Open Group, Leonard Fehskens (Leader, Worldwide Architecture Profession Office, HP Services, Hewlett-Packard) was on hand to present the keynote address where he talked about architecture disciplines and ITAC, including the perspective that the IT architecture profession should be given the opportunity to coalesce before people start to fragment it and that IT architecture is not just about technology but it also about business.

The keynote was followed by a number of diverse and interesting presentations from industry luminaries, including Jay Gould (Senior Advisor, Enterprise Technology Office, Citigroup) who indicated that in addition to Citigroup being the third largest software developer, standardization is key to Citigroup’s enterprise architecture. Mike Lambert (Fellow of the Open Group) presented an overview of his current work as a professor at Reading University (UK) in which he is educating students on TOGAF™.

Steve Rasmussen (CTO at Anglo Platinum Corporation) advocated enterprise architecture as an investment necessary to move business forward. He also spoke on how the company is now looking to implement governance principles as a way to help sustain Anglo Platinum’s enterprise architecture for the long term.

Sohrab Kakalia (Head of Technical Consulting at Infosys Technologies Ltd.) outlined the role of the IT architect in a Global Environment.

Andy Muholland and Dave van Gelder, both of Capgemini, led an interactive discussion about service oriented enterprise and the role of the IT architect, including four fundamental questions on business architecture.

The afternoon began with a compelling presentation from Andras Szakal (Chief Architect, IBM Federal Software Group) including an update on the future direction of ITAC.

Stuart Macgregor of Real IRM presented on enterprise architecture as an IT architecture discipline and David Jackson (Software Architect, IBM) discussed the role of security architecture as an IT architecture discipline.