How should enterprise architects respond when exponential technology change reshapes what's possible?
Technology does not advance linearly — and enterprise architects who plan as if it does will consistently underestimate what is both possible and necessary. This 2013 presentation by Graham McLeod surveys the wave of exponential technologies then reshaping the landscape: mobile and internet connectivity, big data and analytics, semantic technology and linked data, social networks, nanotechnology, robotics, and 3D printing. For each, the presentation draws out not just what the technology does, but what it makes architecturally possible — from radically compressed value chains enabled by 3D printing, to "world processing" application architectures that collect, merge, analyse, and visualise data at scale. A particularly striking section examines network effects and the speed at which new platforms achieve mass adoption, underscoring the pace at which architectural assumptions can be overtaken. The closing message is clear: technology advances are not background noise for enterprise architects — they are the signal.
Originally presented by Graham McLeod at an Inspired event, October 2013.