Do Peer Pressure and Vendor Products Define Your Enterprise Architecture?

Muli Koppel has an interesting discussion on Enterprise Architecture and the not-always-positive influences of vendors and social pressure to conform to what other people have already said is the "best". Here's a couple of quotes I like:

"[they] keep building things, making things that are sticky and where YOU basically brand yourself: 'I am a Google person', or 'I am a Yahoo Person', an 'AOL Person', or a 'Microsoft Person' and that's really how it's shaping up".

If architecture is reversed-engineered from an existing portfolio of technologies, paradigm shifts wouldn't be possible."

"So what I usually do while digesting new technologies, is to reverse-engineer their architecture. And if my existing architecture is equal or better – I am not engaging myself in any technological change whatsoever. But, if the pure principles behind the new technology are better than those I employ, well – that's usually an exciting moment."

Check out his blog article "Mind the Gap."

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