Enterprise Architecture Management Plan Report for Cisco Systems

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of an Enterprise Architecture Management Plan, using Cisco Systems as a case study. It explores various aspects, including project management, governance principles, support for business strategy, enterprise architecture roles and responsibilities, program budgeting, and performance measures. The report delves into Cisco's current architecture, strategic planning, and initiatives, covering business services, systems, applications, technology infrastructure, and IT security. Furthermore, it examines enterprise architecture standards, workforce requirements, and future architecture scenarios. The discussion also includes planning assumptions, updating current and future views, and sequencing plans, culminating in a conclusion that summarizes the key findings. The report highlights how Cisco leverages enterprise architecture to achieve its business goals and maintain a competitive edge in the market.

Running head: ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE MANAGEMENT PLAN
Enterprise architecture management plan
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................1
Discussion:.......................................................................................................................................2
Enterprise Architecture Project Management:.............................................................................2
Governance and Principles:.....................................................................................................2
Support for Strategy and Business:..........................................................................................3
Enterprise Architecture Roles And Responsibilities:..............................................................4
Enterprise Architecture Program Budget:...............................................................................4
Enterprise Architecture Performance Measures:.....................................................................5
EA current architecture summary:...............................................................................................6
Strategic Planning and Initiatives:...........................................................................................6
Business Services and Information:.........................................................................................7
Systems and Applications:.......................................................................................................8
Technology Infrastructure:......................................................................................................9
IT security:.............................................................................................................................10
Enterprise Architecture Standards:........................................................................................11
Workforce Requirements:......................................................................................................11
EA Future Architecture Summary:............................................................................................12
Future Operation Scenario:....................................................................................................12
Planning Assumption:............................................................................................................13

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Updating current and Future Views:......................................................................................14
Sequencing Plan:...................................................................................................................15
Configuration Management:..................................................................................................15
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................16
References:....................................................................................................................................17

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Introduction:
The purpose of this report is to discuss the various aspects of Enterprise Architecture
Management Plan. The Enterprise Architecture Management plan involves the following of
certain guidelines and a particular architecture for the smooth running of the business of the
organization. The report demands the choosing of a certain organization in order to better
understand the concept of Enterprise Architecture Management. The concept can be used in
order to develop the architecture of the organization, which will play a major role in achieving
the long-term goal of the organization. The organization that has been chosen for the report is the
Cisco Systems organization, which is a well-reputed organization. The Cisco Systems is an
American multinational organization (Cisco 2018). The headquarters of the organization is based
in San Jose, located in California. The Cisco is responsible for the selling of the various
networking devices and for the development of the various telecommunication equipments. The
organization is also responsible for the production of the high quality technology devices. The
main domain of the organization is the working on the Internet of Things technology. The other
technology on which the organization works is the energy management and the domain security
technology. Among the networking companies, Cisco is the largest company. The organization
was found by Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner in December, 1984. Both the founders were
educated from the Stanford University. The founders built the concept of local area network and
used it to connect the various computers in the area by the use of router system.
There are a number of products that are being manufactured by the Cisco. The
organization works on three main sections. The three sections comprise of an enterprise as a
whole and the provider of the service, business firms, which are not very developed, and the

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service that is provided at the homes. Over the last three decades, the organization has shown a
large growth around the globe especially in the Asia Pacific region. Cisco has occupies a major
share of the Australian market. The Cisco has been able to capture the all sections of the market.
The Cisco has captured the market in the recent years in various sectors. The Voice over IP
service by the Cisco organization has been the most common service that is been provided by the
organization (Cisco 2018). The Cisco has become a major vendor of voice over IP in the
enterprise sector and now is trying to expand its service to the homes as well. Cisco provides
voice over IP service to the various cable providers and to the major companies, which use the
facility of the voice over IP such as Skype, Microsoft and Yahoo. The Cisco is also responsible
for providing cloud-based service to the various organizations. The cloud is a new technology,
all the organization is looking forward to the adoption of the technology, and as a result, the
Cisco is being approached to provide the service about the reputation it holds.
Discussion:
Enterprise Architecture Project Management:
Governance and Principles:
There are certain set of guidelines and principles that needs to be followed in order to
implement the concept of enterprise architecture management plan. The Cisco being a well-
organized company also adhered to the guidelines which makes it the largest network provider.
The framework that is followed by the organization is that the enterprise follows the four sectors
that is of business, operation, system and technology. The company sticks to these four main
principles in order to implement the enterprise architecture management plan in an effective way.
The reference architecture involves the providing of the taxonomy in the common form and the

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architecture involves the promotion of cross collaboration. The operational architecture, which is
one of the four architectures, is responsible for the providing of the context, which can be used to
identify the gap that is present in the business (Gollenia and Lars Alexander 2016). The
operation architecture also includes the points that can pose a threat to the capability of
expansion of the business. All the requirements that is related to the operations is related to the
system architecture and the system architecture in turn is related to the technologies that are
responsible for powering of the systems of the organization. The satisfaction of the four sections
in the process of the proper implementation of the enterprise architecture management plan can
accelerate the business by a great deal.
Support for Strategy and Business:
The enterprise architecture management plan is also responsible for either providing the
strategy to expand a particular business or to give ideas as to how a new business can be set up
such that the business can make ample amount of profit. The Cisco organization uses the
Enterprise Architecture Management Plan in order to expand the business to more number of
customers. The implementation of the Enterprise Architecture Management plan also involves
the inclusion of the proper marketing strategy, which help in reaching more number of
customers. This will help in maximizing the profit of the business (Kerzner, Harold and Harold
R. Kerzner 2017). When the Cisco is releasing any new product then the use of the concept of
Enterprise Architecture Management plan can help in the proper planning of how the new
product can reach the maximum number of customers. In the new businesses, the Enterprise
Architecture Management plan can help in not only the proper management of the product but
also the proper management of the people involved in the business. A close analysis will provide
the list of the employees who are suitable for carrying out the project.

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Enterprise Architecture Roles And Responsibilities:
The successful implementation of the Enterprise Architecture management plan requires
the working of trained and skilled personnel. Any person who does not have the proper
knowledge of the role that needs to be carried out cannot help in adding productivity to the
organization. The understanding of one’s role is the most important for carrying out the task in a
proper manner. For this reason, Cisco provides a handbook on the roles and responsibilities of an
EA manager, which has details of all the works that needs to be carried out. The roles had the
business architects, operation architects, system architects and the technology architects. These
four comprise the main role of an EA manager. The roles were more focused on following the
business strategies. The way in which the concept of Enterprise Architecture Management plan
can be implemented as to increase the productivity of the business is also discussed (Lapalme et
al. 2016). The roles not only involve the implementation of the points mentioned in the
handbook but also most importantly involve the innovation of new ideas that add value to the
points already laid down in the handbook. The job roles that are mentioned should follow the
guidelines that are mentioned by the organization in each of the section. The job roles that are
mentioned follow relates information technology to business. The Cisco offers special courses
and certifications for the IT architecture management role.
Enterprise Architecture Program Budget:
The main issue that is involved with the various organizations is that before the
implementation of the Enterprise Architecture concept, the organizations do not prepare the
budget for the program. The implementation of the Enterprise Architecture concept may involve
the implementation of the various technologies. The improvement of the business may require
the installation of a number of different facilities or technologies that is demanded by the

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Enterprise Architecture plan (Alzoubi 2018). In this way in the process of implementing the
various technologies and facilities, the organization may end up exceeding the budget. In the end
of the year during the calculation of the budget the company, may find that the organization has
end up in loss rather than profit by the implementation of the various technologies. Due to this
reason, Cisco plans the budget before proceeding with any of the program. By the enterprise
architecture system, the organization will know what facilities or technologies would be required
for the particular project. In this way, Cisco allots a certain sum to the each of the sections. This
helps in the proper planning and spending the money that has been allotted for the particular
purpose. This will help in not exceeding the budget in the end of the year (Donaldson 2015).
Separate money has been kept allotted for the purpose of emergency. Such proper planning helps
in the proper management of the resources such that the organization can profit in business and
cover up the cost by the implementation of the enterprise architecture plan.
Enterprise Architecture Performance Measures:
The total measure of the performance of the result of implementation of the Enterprise
Architecture plan is made based on the performance of the each sector. For achieving a high
performance, the four main sectors should be satisfied that is the reference architecture,
operation architecture, operation architecture, system architecture and the business architecture.
The individual performance of each of these sectors is checked in order to obtain the final
performance of the implementation of the process of the enterprise architecture (Kasemsap
2015). There should be a parameter for measurement of the performance of the all the employees
present in each of the departments. This helps Cisco to check that all the departments are
functioning in a proper manner. A specified target is set, which is to be achieved at the end of
each month. The process of continuous check of the performance parameter helps the

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organizations produce quality products (Lange et al. 2016). Cisco Company trains its employees
in such a way such that the productivity of the employees is increased and a large number of
products can be produced in an efficient and effective manner.
EA current architecture summary:
Strategic Planning and Initiatives:
The first process that is involved in the strategic planning process is the identification of
the new ideas. The analyzing of this new data also falls under the part of the strategic planning
process. The strategic planning system is used for the development of the various plans related to
the various transactions that are taking place. The process of strategic planning also involves the
prediction of the solutions to the problems arising in the organization. The strategic planning
process involves the solutions that are provided due to the changes coming in the organization.
The changes may involve the various risks that are being faced by the organization or if the
organization runs out of resources (Alwadain et al. 2016). The strategic planning process helps in
estimation of the cost that may be involved for the installation of the new facilities or due to the
implementation of the new technologies.
The Enterprise Architecture management is related to the strategic planning process. The
Enterprise Architecture procedure involves the adoption of the new ideas. In fact, that is the most
important aspect of the Enterprise Architecture system. The implementation of the Enterprise
Planning involves the strategic planning process by following the method of doing the right thing
in the right way. The Enterprise Architecture may also be able to play a role in the long-term
strategic planning process. This can be possible as by the enterprise architecture procedure the
storage of the past record can be stored in the EA (Simon et al. 2014). The record of the success

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obtained by the Cisco organization in the various projects is stored in EA. There are many
pattern related to the security, which are reusable and are held by the EA. The EA is used by the
organization by following the certain guidelines that are being provided. The guidelines are
provided in all the four sub architectures.
Business Services and Information:
The EA is responsible for providing the various business services to the number of
organization. The Enterprise Architecture is responsible for the providing the various business
services in the Cisco. Understanding the objective of the project that is in hand is most important
for the completion of the project in an efficient manner. This can be done by the Enterprise
Architecture procedure. Recognizing the profit from a particular project and knowing the process
of Enterprise Architecture procedure also provides the price at which the article should be sold in
order to gain a certain amount of profit. The flow of process for the completion of the project is
also provided by the Enterprise Architecture procedure (Alwadain et al. 2016). The other
business processes as to which technology is applied at which part of the project and the time
that has to be invested for each part of the project is presented by the Enterprise Architecture
procedure. While the development of a new product the recognition of the target market is an
important factor for the proper selling of the product. The Enterprise Architecture process also
presents this identification of the target market.
The Enterprise Architecture procedure can also be useful for the storage of the various
information. The various information may comprise the storage of the various important
passwords, which are repetitive in nature. There is also certain repetitive pattern involved in the
Cisco organization for the important files. These patterns can be accessed by the process of
Enterprise Architecture and does not need the remembering of all the different codes of the

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different files (Frampton et al. 2015). The other information that the system can store is the
information about the large number of employees and based on the information of the number of
working hours of these employees the salary can be calculated in an automatic way and in an
efficient way. Cisco has a large number of customers and transactions. Thus, the Enterprise
Architecture procedure is used in order to maintain the record of the transactions and the
customers’ details of Cisco.
Systems and Applications:
The Enterprise Architecture system extends its use in the systems of Cisco. The
Enterprise Architecture process can be used in order to maintain the systems of the organization.
The systems of Cisco are involved for holding many of the important information. These systems
need to be mentioned properly. Many important transactions take place in the systems of the
organization every minute. Thus, maintenance of the systems is of utmost importance for the
Cisco organization. By the help of the Enterprise Architecture procedure, any issues in any of the
system at any point of time are highlighted and the issue is resolved (Zarvić, Novica, and Roel
2014). The organization may also use the Enterprise Architecture process in order to set up all
the systems in a proper manner such that no intruder can get access to the confidential
information of the organization. The implementation of the Enterprise Architecture can help
maintain a proper record of the issues that had occurred in the systems. The systems can be
linked with each other and various files may be shared within the systems. As far as the
applications are concerned the various applications that are deployed in the systems has to be
checked for security in order to keep the systems free from threat. The Enterprise Architecture
presents the applications, which is to be used for the completion of a particular project (He, Wu,
and Li 2014). The Enterprise Architecture procedure is responsible for presenting the best

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possible way for the completion of a task. The way in which the task is to carry out is also
suggested by Enterprise Architecture procedure.
Technology Infrastructure:
The technology infrastructure involves the use of the various technologies in the parts of
the project in order to fulfill the requirement of the project. The use of the different technologies
in the project may involve the proper assigning of the technology to the proper part of the
project. For the purpose of the analyzing and the maintenance of huge amount of data the use of
big data technology can be used. For the purpose of the storage of the information or for the
hosting of a website cloud computing technology has to be used. The cloud computing
technology can also be used in the cyber security purpose (Whittle, Ralph and Conrad 2016).
Cisco uses the Enterprise Architecture methodology in order to find the technology, which is
applicable at a particular part of the project. Thus, the enterprise architecture comprises of a
number of technologies. The identification of which technology has to be applied at which the
help of the Enterprise Architecture process can do part of the project. The data management is
important part of the organizations. Many sensitive data are present in the organization. The
organization is responsible for the management of the huge number of data of the customers as
well as the employees of the organization. For this, the technology of big data can be used. The
Enterprise Architecture suggests the use of big data in this case (Vargas et al. 2016). In case the
same form of task has to be done for a number of times, then the use of automation process such
as artificial intelligence can be used as this will save the time and will increase productivity of
the employees and the organization. For the protection of the huge amount of data and the
sensitive information Enterprise Architecture technology suggests the use of cloud computing.
The implementation of the concepts such as that of images and snapshots, the data can be