I would like to share my thoughts and experiences on how I used to perceive Integration as a developer, how my thought process has evolved over the years with the changing market dynamics, to how I see it today as an Enterprise Integration Architect.
Please do note that the views and opinions expressed in this article were purely from my experiences and not trying to be too prescriptive. I do welcome your feedback / comments to help me understand how my opinions resonate with the rest of the folks. Thank You.
Most of you reading this article might believe in the fact that the world we are in is facing an unprecedented convergence of international security threats and instability with respect to economy, where United Kingdom is not an exception. Over the past 2+ years, we have heard and seen challenges around inflation, the ongoing wars (Ukraine, Gaza), costs associated with the standard of living because of increase in interest rates, fuel costs and other commodities. Post pandemic, similar was the case with most of the retail and bank businesses that we see in the high-street in UK which have either shutdown a few of their branches or considering or have moved online or have completely closed. ‘Digital Transformation’ (DT) is a key topic which I hear day-in day-out based on my conversation with IT leaders across various geographies and across various industry sectors. DT initiatives such as Application rationalisation, reduce operational costs, improve efficiency through automation and exploring new revenue channels are some of the important aspects which businesses have considered. One common and underlying denominator which helps businesses to achieve either one or more of these initiatives is securely connecting to those desperate applications and systems, irrespective of the language those applications are either built/written in or irrespective where the applications are deployed on (for example, On-Premises (within the data center) or in the Cloud (on one of the hyper-scalers etc.)) and to obtain good insights with the data they have about their customers and to improvise it much better.
In my two and a half decades of experience I had the opportunity to get my hands dirty on numerous Integration Platforms / Products in addition to designing and implementing complex transformation programmes across geographies.
Let me bring this to light, with a real-life scenario “the Connected Car Experience”.
Connectivity is an important aspect for all vehicles, to further enhance driving experience. For example, key features:
- Streaming music and media
- Live traffic visualisation
- Software updates from Cloud
- Weather updates
- Navigation/Maps
- Vehicle diagnostics
- Apple carplay and Android Auto
- Location of charge stations
As I sit in my car and embark on my daily commute to Windsor, I’m struck by a thought: our world, much like this network of roads, is a tapestry of interconnected paths. In this tale, my journey through the city’s veins is not just a commute; it’s a reflection of our global community’s challenges and triumphs in an era of unparalleled connectivity.
Today, cars are connected in more and more ways and as they do, drivers and transport officials are being provided with a continually expanding set of new features and benefits that is changing what it means to drive a car. According to data analysts, in 2020 around 48% of all new cars shipped had built-in connectivity and that by 2030, 96% of all new cars shipped worldwide will be connected vehicles.Connectivity technology is being used in more and more automotive systems, deeply integrating the vehicles that have these systems into the Internet of Things (IoT). Using embedded sensors, network connectivity and cloud computing, today the connected car generates, collects, and exchanges a continual flow of data and information and provides an “Enhanced Driving Experience”.
 | Routing and Traffic Management | Connected cars can interact with smart traffic lights, automatically process real-time traffic conditions as well as receive information from smart road signs and highway markers. This helps drivers to make informed decisions in real-time | ||
 | Safety | Connected cars include safety features including lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control monitoring surrounding vehicles, autonomous braking preventing potential collision situations etc. | ||
 | Parking | Connected cars can leverage smart city infrastructure information to inform drivers where parking spaces are available | ||
 | Charging | Connected cars can receive real-time information about charging station availability and wait times, helps to ensure a seamless charging experience | ||
 | Integrated device environment | Connected cars supports exchange of information between driver’s personal devices, wearables and vehicle’s infotainment system enhancing driving experience for energy management and health monitoring. |
Enterprise Connectivity and Security
Having understood, how connectivity aspect plays a key role in providing an enhanced Connected Car Experience and an Enhanced Driving Experience, let’s now relate how enterprise connectivity combined with enterprise security could benefit businesses and organisations in safeguarding and improving their security from potential threats and cybersecurity attacks, as business processes continue to evolve in sharing either sensitive and/or proprietary customer data both within the organisation and outside the organisational boundaries, either with their internal staff or external stakeholders/partner eco-systems.From an enhanced driver experience illustration, it is clear that a smart car is connected to various external data sources/providers via industry standard protocols, using proprietary data formats / structures to exchange data with those data sources (for example – to obtain weather updates, to search for charge stations for a given location, to search for parking for a given postcode/zip code or geo co-ordinates, extracting data out from vehicle’s infotainment system etc.). Also, the mechanism of accessing those external public facing APIs (meaning authenticating and seeking authorisation for weather updates API for example or to search for charge stations for a given location) does vary from provider to provider and it is more likely that those APIs were developed in different programming languages and are potentially deployed for consumption on various cloud providers. This is what we see in our IT world and that’s where enterprise security also has a key role.
Enterprise Security
Enterprise security is a multi-faceted concern that includes both the internal or proprietary business secrets of a company as well as the employee and customer data related to privacy laws. One additional dimension to complicate this further pertains to the laws which are specific to each region they are applicable to. Enterprise security is increasingly in focus as major international companies such as Facebook, Yahoo, Home Depot, Equifax etc. have all faced large fines and government intervention due to the loss of sensitive customer data to hackers.
Well, enterprise security is a vast topic by itself, which I intend to get into the nitty-gritty details in subsequent blogs.
But, as my journey ends, the lessons of the road offer a clear parallel to the challenges and solutions within enterprise connectivity and security. Implementing robust access controls, adapting security principles at every layer, ensuring appropriate data access levels, and managing the depth of data exposure are not just strategies, they’re essential markers on the roadmap to a secure digital future.
As I step out of my car, the cool night air reminds me that our journey through the digital landscape is continuous, ever evolving, and filled with both challenges and opportunities.
| It’s a journey that requires us to be ever vigilant, proactive, and thoughtful in our approach to connectivity and security. |  |
Sree
Name: Sreekanth Cherukuri “Sree”
Interest: My brain loves to find alternates !!! .
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