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A federated architecture for
IM/IT will enable the Government of Canada to determine
what an IM/IT infrastructure must be comprised of—the
information management policies, standards and
processes, and the information technology components and
systems that are needed to support government-wide
interests and business
requirements.
A fundamental benefit of
architecture for IM/IT in any enterprise is
adaptability. The government's IM/IT infrastructure
won't deliver what is required if it continues to evolve
in an ad hoc way, simply responding to current
conditions and existing business processes and
requirements. For example, the technical components in a
reporting system that work well today may not do the job
a year from now should data requirements for a specific
program change. They may even restrict the capacity of
the government to meet evolving data
requirements.
With an architecture, you can
anticipate new requirements and potential changes
in business processes and be prepared for them—you can
be ready for the inevitable changes in applications
systems and other IT assets. Architecture addresses how
to best reconfigure, redistribute, re-engineer and
re-deploy IT assets quickly, with the least disruption,
at the lowest possible cost. To deliver this level of
adaptability, an architecture has to be scaleable,
domain-based, consistent, extensible,
supportable/manageable, comprehensive and widely
accepted by management and the IT
community.
The Federated Architecture
Approach
In October 1998, 23
departments participated in an initiative to renew the
government's IM/IT infrastructure. Treasury Board
Ministers approved the work resulting from this
initiative in April 1999 and called for a common IM/IT
infrastructure that
is:
- standards-based;
- able to accommodate future
growth in electronic traffic and respond efficiently
and effectively to changing government requirements;
- secure, providing assurance
of privacy and confidentiality;
- able to lever current asset
base;
- adaptable to evolving
technologies; and
- adequately funded and
properly managed.
Subsequently dubbed the
Federated Architecture Model, this approach to building
the common IM/IT infrastructure balances the interests
of the government as a whole and the need for greater
interoperability with the needs and mandates of
individual departments and
agencies.
The Federated Architecture
Model envisions the co-ordination of common business
processes, information flows and systems across
government. It will also provide the basis for the
co-ordination of IM/IT investments among federal
departments and agencies to achieve interoperability as
well as the common standards for government information
services so that business processes and systems can
operate in an increasingly integrated
fashion.
The Federated Architecture
Model does not extend to the specific technologies or
standards for department-unique components. But it
anticipates that some "pieces" of the infrastructure
will have to be common across all departments and
agencies. These common components are needed to ensure
the government meets its on-line service delivery goals.
Other components will be specific to "subgroups" of
departments and agencies that share similar needs for
which common IM/IT solutions are
appropriate.
Enterprise Architecture
Toolkit: the definitive resource for Enterprise
Architecture
projects
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