A primer — After writing many blogs and articles about architecture, I realised I needed to explain precisely what architecture is. It was remiss of me as some may need to know, and others may be curious. I am describing it here. Let's look at architecture's origins, value, definitions, disciplines, methods, artefacts, governance…

Emanations of the Philosophy of Life Instinct Read the poem aloud, dear reader, and you’ll find a rhythm and enjoy it more than reading it silently. Where Does It Feel Like Home? My eyes open in pretty Interlaken at dawn The hotel’s been lovely, and two days gone It’s beautiful like many places we roam But why does none…

Mind your language — I love English, with its myriad influences and ability to express many shades of meaning (although other languages are no slouches in that, e.g., Urdu and French that I know of). Metaphors give power, similes add a dash of colour, and colloquialisms provide infinite variety and interest. Abbreviations and mnemonics…

Like love, a great idea isn’t enough. — This is written for your good, not to pull you down. Yes, you, for who isn’t a dreamer of the dream of wild success and immense wealth from a killer idea, whether in papads or neural networks? I know much expert analysis and scholarly research exists on this topic, but…

Digging up my old stories for new readers… —

Expert Architecture Techniques — No humanmade system is immune to failure. However robust we make a service, it will go down sometime. What we architects need to do is deliberately design services to recover quickly. Here’s how, from my experience in architecting and improving resilience in IT systems. Let's first sort out the terms…

Emanations of the Philosophy of Life Instinct — I am excited to release this article imperfectly, as I have the answer to one of the most troublesome aspects of life — Free Will. I'll write better versions later, but the breakthrough is here. This topic is not easy, although I’ve kept it simple. But it’s good to think…

A poem — Read it aloud my friend, savour it slowly, come sit with me. Sunbeams in an Old Cloth Mill Left my car in a weedy cobbled lane, By a crumbling derelict cotton mill, It loomed cavernous coolly inviting, In a forgotten yesteryear Bombay. Waiting alone inside for someone late, I sink back on a cot by the stockroom, Haunt…

Architecture essays — Senior IT leaders of companies (and, on happy occasions, business heads) regularly ask me how to set up enterprise architecture in their organisations. Sometimes they enquire informally, and at other times, through proposal requests. Having established enterprise architecture for several companies, I am sharing my method for anyone interested in…