As the API economy expands and the adoption of "Digitalization" (in contemporary terms) gains steam and becomes a main stream initiative; Businesses small and Big around the planet are seeking to adopt a viable Digital strategy.
I am fortunate to be possessing a unique Vantage Point, right from the 'Trenches';one which is at the crucial junction of Strategy and Implementing the Strategy through robust engineering. It is and will be interesting to see how this journey pans out. There is obviously a plethora of choices, decision points, learnings , heart-burns that will come with taking this journey.
Whether the journey be taken up at all or not is not a question any more, since there is unanimous agreement round our 'Planet' (at least the IT Representation of it Planet (REST is never to far ;)) that the Value Proposition is real and tangible.
- The Pay as you go model of Billing / Subscription is indeed welcome which will ensure that humans only pay for what is due to them.
- "Customer was , is and will continue to remain King" , the idea is to make every experience a personal and tailor made experience for an increasingly on-line only customer is the actual goal and also the Holy Grail of the Digital Transformation.
It is marrying this romantic value proposition with Architectural and System constraints that begs serious considerations and questions.
As with any Engineering, we need the building blocks and analysis of the forces, constraints of the systems.
For the Digital Transformation of an Enterprise the quintessential building blocks are.
- Customer Centric and Customer First (the end customer) thinking.
- A 24 X 7 X 52 presence enabled by being present in the ubiquitous "Cloud"
- Exposing self-sufficient and meaningful services at the right level of Granularity.
- Exposing the Service offering of the Business via Good APIs for consumption.
- Allowing the Customer to pick and choose the services 'ala - carte' and make a composite usable service. Much like custom anything (Furniture, Pizza, Dessert), which means the services should be what contemporary nomenclature labels as "Micro Services"
Each of the afore mentioned areas require focus, have many thought processes and evolving models. As enterprises big and small embark on the Digital Transformation journey they are destined to encounter all of the above and more. The essence as I see from my Vantage Point and what I deem critical to success will be in making "Wise Choices" from the bouquet available. While Technology has a break neck pace, Wisdom (Collective Industry Wisdom) has been time - tested and has been inclusive and continuously across eras. The Wisdom would lie in making the choices which are "Balanced".
Balancing the Short Term Gains with the Long Term Viability.
Balancing the Agility and Speed to Achieve Goals with the Engineering Rigor and discipline to ensure that achieved Goals and Gains are there to stay.
Balance between the itch to Disrupt existing Business Models with Ensuring and providing a viable and lasting alternative for the very Business Model that is being disrupted. This is not a philosophical requirement it is going to be a very pragmatic and necessary requirement.
The Balance will have to be a applied diligently and consistently at all levels Business Strategy, IT Strategy, Product Management and Technology Adoption and Engineering.
It is indeed going to be interesting times ahead.
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