Evolving the Enterprise Architecture

By Steve Koss, Distinguished Engineer and Global Team Lead, Product Services and Solutions, Unisys

“Business as usual” is changing fast.

With more systems, more points of interaction, and more pressure to integrate everything into a seamless, efficient whole, many ClearPath Forward® clients find themselves exploring digital transformation initiatives.

But what does it take to transition digital transformation from the conceptual to the practical? What steps are needed to connect everything that needs connecting, limit the strain on these connections, and start seeing a real return on your digital transformation efforts?

As the System of Record sitting at the heart of your business and IT operations, the ClearPath Forward environment is already helping to facilitate many of the connections that will be commonplace as your digital transformation initiative progresses. And with a number of industry-standard interfaces and tools already built into the environment, you’ll be well equipped to build on and add to these connections as your needs and strategies evolve.

To see how, let’s examine the ways the ClearPath Forward environment interacts with Systems of Engagement, Systems of Integration, and Systems of Reference.

Systems of Engagement

In this common scenario, mobile devices, web apps, point-of-sale systems, and such – collectively referred to as Systems of Engagement – need to access and interact with the transactional data residing on a ClearPath Forward system.

These interactions were historically facilitated by purpose-built interfaces, such as one designed to give a mobile app access to a specific set of ClearPath Forward data. But because these interfaces didn’t utilize a common or open standard, they had to be rewritten every time a new System of Engagement was introduced.

Since that time, many standards have been developed – including web services, microservices, and message queueing – eliminating the need for heavily customized, special-purpose interfaces.

And, fortunately, you’re free to build and call to these standards in the ClearPath Forward environment. We often call these “exposed services” – or anything that’s exposed by the ClearPath Forward system to be called by a System of Engagement. With the help of these exposed services, it’s much easier to interact with Systems of Engagement.

Systems of Integration

As more Systems of Engagement are added, and the interactions between them and your ClearPath Forward system mature, the need for better control over transactions becomes crucial.

For many, this means implementing a hub that can monitor and prioritize traffic, control quality of service, and manage conversions. That’s where Systems of Integration come into play.

Systems of Integration usually take on a few forms: a traditional Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), a cloud-based Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service (EiPaaS) system, or an API gateway. The ESB and API gateway often work in conjunction to manage digital interactions between Systems of Record and Systems of Engagement, often by calling out to external cloud services.

You can even call out to these cloud services directly from your ClearPath Forward system using capabilities in Business Integrator (BI), the Application Integration Services (AIS) product, and ClearPath Forward ePortal.

Systems of Reference

While Systems of Integration certainly play an important role in managing and monitoring traffic – as well as simplifying things like confirming a credit card transaction is legitimate – the sheer amount of activity flowing through them has the potential to overburden systems and increase costs.

That’s why many clients have opted to implement Systems of Reference. Often referred to as a “speed layer,” a System of Reference exists to provide a near-real-time replica of commonly accessed data from the System of Record. Essentially, you’re eliminating the need to repeatedly go back to the System of Record, cutting a step out of the process and accelerating the transaction as a result.

Plus, because Systems of Reference are able to pull together data from disparate sources, and run queries against this data, they’re incredibly valuable from a big data perspective.

You can rely on the Unisys Data Exchange product to propagate select data from your ClearPath Forward system to your System of Reference, making it easy to provide what’s needed to quickly complete transactions and support analytics efforts.

Your Choice, Your Architecture

This vision of a next-generation enterprise architecture – one in which Systems of Record, Systems of Engagement, Systems of Integration, and Systems of Reference all work closely as a cohesive whole – represents an idealized state of sorts.

We recognize it’s a place not every ClearPath Forward client will move to immediately, nor will they put every piece in place exactly as described above. But it does further illustrate a defining characteristic of the ClearPath Forward environment: choice.

However you choose to envision and execute your digital transformation strategy, you can rest assured knowing the ClearPath Forward environment will provide the resources, connections, and flexibility you need to effectively support your journey.