Seeing the forest and the trees

The architectural landscape is not often talked about as a standalone topic outside of specific instances such as migrating from on-premises to the cloud. In many ways, it’s similar to system design in its intention, as well as patterns. In most cases, the design of a single system within a larger ecosystem will match the design patterns of the systems around it. If the trend at your company is to utilize SOA, then you will see SOA at every level. The biggest difference between the architectural landscape and system design is the scope that the design encompasses.

You can’t see the forest for the trees is a proverb that was first published in 1546 in The Proverbs of John Heywood. The idea is that from the middle of a dense forest, you can see every tree that surrounds you in great detail from the trunk all the way to the crown of the tree – but from this vantage point, you literally cannot see the whole forest; you don’...