Randy Heffner

Vice President, Principal Analyst serving Enterprise Architecture PROFESSIONALS

Randy serves Enterprise Architecture Professionals. He is a leading expert on architectures and design approaches for building enterprise applications that are secure and resilient in the face of continuous business and technology change. This makes service-oriented architecture (SOA) one of Randy's primary focus areas. Since enterprise applications need much more than SOA, Randy led the development of Forrester's Digital Business Architecture, which provides a broad architectural context around SOA. For seven years, Randy has been a driving force for Forrester's research on application architecture trends, concepts, patterns, and best practices.

Particular focus areas within Randy's research include general application architecture and design issues; overall SOA strategy; SOA platform and infrastructure strategy; core SOA design concepts; Web services architecture; and standards, SOA security, SOA, and Web services management. He also covers coordination and leadership of other analysts' SOA work. Randy continues to develop strategies and structures to guide enterprises' longer-term evolution toward Digital Business Architecture.


Previous Work Experience

Randy has extensive experience with enterprise architecture management and application architecture and design. Randy was a chief architect at Sprint, where he led enterprise architecture and standardization efforts, along with the analysis and introduction of application servers, component architectures, object-oriented development, application security architectures, CORBA, distributed transaction management, and other new technologies. His IT experience also includes technology leadership, management, and application development with a Big Five consultancy and in the retail and litigation support industries.


Education

Randy received a bachelor's of business administration from Baylor University's business school, where he was named the outstanding student in computer information systems.

Randy Heffner's Research

  • For CIOs

    Report: Integrate Cloud Into Existing Architecture Strategies

    With the level of industry hype about cloud computing, CIOs may get the impression that adopting cloud-based offerings is a sure path to business benefit. But cloud computing is not the answer t...

    • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

      Report: The Forrester Wave™: Integrated SOA Governance, Q1 2012

      In Forrester's 121-criteria evaluation of integrated service-oriented architecture (SOA) governance vendors, we found that Software AG, Progress Software (Progress), IBM, and SOA Software lead t...

      • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

        Report: The Forrester Wave™: SOA Service Life-Cycle Management, Q1 2012

        In Forrester's 55-criteria evaluation of service-oriented architecture (SOA) service life-cycle management (SLM) vendors, we found that Software AG, Progress Software, and SOA Software lead the ...

        • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

          Report: The Forrester Wave™: Standalone SOA Management Solutions, Q4 2011

          In Forrester's 51-criteria evaluation of standalone service-oriented architecture (SOA) management solution vendors, we found that Progress Software leads the pack with its broad and deep functi...

          • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

            Report: The Forrester Wave™: SOA Application Gateways, Q4 2011

            In Forrester's 45-criteria evaluation of service-oriented architecture (SOA) application gateway vendors, we found that Layer 7 Technologies (Layer 7), Vordel, IBM, and Forum Systems lead the pa...

            View all of Randy Heffner's Research

            Clients who work with Randy Heffner also work with:

             
            Loading...

            Browse

            About Forrester

            Forrester Research, Inc. is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology.

            Roles We Serve

            Forrester supports leaders in 19 roles across three distinct groups: IT, Marketing & Strategy, and Technology Industry.

            Analysts & Coverage Areas

            Aligned to your professional role, Forrester's analysts are experts in the specific technologies, issues, and trends currently impacting your business.

            Forrester Leadership Boards

            Fresh thinking and collaborative problem-solving through an unmatched combination of peer networking, forward-looking analysis, and professional guidance.

            Consulting

            Our expert analysts apply custom research-based solutions and data-rich insight to your critical challenges and opportunities.

            Community

            Connect with peers and analysts, share your views, and ask questions on key business issues.

            Blog

            Forrester analysts weigh in on the latest business and technology news.

            • BROWSE
            • Register
            • Call +1 617.613.5730
            • Cart