Can my new age core on transformation peacefully co-exist with my legacy IT infrastructure?
Defining the right enterprise architecture is the key to solving this problem. Ironically, the problems of having too many technology layers are easily solved by adding one more, that of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), which enables all technology, from legacy to cutting edge, to communicate and co-exist. All that a bank needs to do is define its enterprise architecture in terms of SOA, ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) and other standards such as XML and Web Services.
The success of SOA adoption hinges on the robustness of the bank’s IT policy and process framework. Putting check points where necessary and automating at least some part of enforcement improves the framework’s effectiveness. These policies determine how applications must interact, share functionalities and generally behave with one another. Yet again, technology provides the tools to define these policies, and once the rules are established within the interfacing infrastructure, all systems automatically comply.
That apart, middleware technology can enable existing applications to fit into the revised enterprise architecture by giving them a “facade” to communicate with new applications. Thus, even non-standard legacy applications can interact with new systems in a standardized manner.
In short, the right architecture and policies ease application integration and do away with the need for re-engineering in most cases, barring when it is required to achieve other business goals.
