News

BONN – March 20, 2017

The Cross-Business-Architecture Lab develops building blocks for digital transformation

The SOA Innovation Lab is changing its name to Cross-Business-Architecture Lab (CBA Lab). The new name sends a message regarding the fundamental importance enterprise architecture now holds for the digital transformation as an enabler of networked cross-business and cross-sector value chains.

“Digitalization is driving the agenda at our member companies and therefore the work we do as well,” says Dr. Johannes Helbig, Chairman of the Board of CBA Lab. “New technological approaches such microservices, agile architecture, and ‘API First” are emerging on the basis of SOA concepts, although they are no longer automatically associated with that expression. The focus has now expanded to cross-business structural design.”

CBA Lab is an association created by application users for other application users. It therefore shares and further develops its best practices together as a community. As a partner in the VOICE association of application users, CBA Lab also presents the opinions and requirements of application users to the companies that design and produce the applications.

Our joint work and projects have led to the creation of numerous guides, position papers, and training courses. In the last two years alone, these guides, position papers, and training courses have addressed topics such as industrial analytics and big data, the cloud, mobility, and blockchains, and have also led to the development of a Digital Navigator. In other words, the association addresses all question relating to architecture in the digital transformation. “Over a period of ten years, the ability to adopt a cross-business mindset and design cross-business architectures has become a hallmark of SOA Innovation Lab, and the time has now come to make this clear,” says Dr. Karsten Schweichhart, Member of the Board of CBA Lab with responsibility for Press and Communication. “That’s why we are changing our name to Cross-Business-Architecture Lab to coincide with CeBIT 2017, whereby our new goal is to develop building blocks for digital transformation. At the same time, CBA Lab continues to view SOA as a central modular architecture principle for the Internet of Things and a wide range of services.”