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

Randy serves Application Development & Delivery 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.
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.
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.
Most architects now recognize that service-oriented architecture (SOA) is much more than Web services (WS) standards and better application integration. SOA continues to gain industry recognition as...
Architect's Goal: Integrate IaaS As An Option On An Infrastructure Continuum
Some of the most compelling cloud computing stories are public infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) stories: stories of companies using many servers for a short time and charging that use to a credit...
With 74% of the Global 2000 now using service-oriented architecture (SOA), most architects recognize that SOA is about much more than Web services and better application integration. SOA continues to...
Some think of service-oriented architecture (SOA) as just Web services standards to achieve better application integration. However, SOA is gaining recognition as a key element of strategic business...
Begin Building PaaS Into Your Application Platform Strategy
As part of their application platform strategies, enterprise architects should become familiar with platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offerings. PaaS is one of the multiple categories of offerings that...
Don’t Fall For Hype — Build A Strong Foundation For Your Approach To Cloud
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 to all...
The old foundations of technology strategy — hot tech trends and business plans — have become inadequate, resulting in technology silos and hard-wired solutions. In a new era of...
Move From Application And Outsourcing Silos Toward Building Your Business
Borrowing words from science fiction writer William Gibson: The future of solution architecture is here — it's just not yet evenly distributed or highly integrated. Even with a long list of...
The worst CIO misunderstanding about service-oriented architecture (SOA) is to think of it only as another technical initiative for software reuse. Although SOA's reuse potential is real and good,...
To Evolve An SOA Platform, Build From Tactical Needs Toward A Strategic Vision
Building an effective service-oriented architecture (SOA) platform requires cohesive integration of both new product categories, such as SOA repositories and enterprise service buses (ESBs), and...
Progress Software And AmberPoint Lead; Each Vendor Has Unique Strengths
Forrester evaluated leading standalone service-oriented architecture (SOA) and Web services management solution (or simply, SOA management) vendors across 100 criteria and found that Progress...
Understand And Communicate The Broad Structure Of EA
Since Forrester originally published this report in 2002, little has changed in the overall structure of enterprise architecture (EA), but business architecture practices are considerably more...
The worst CIO misunderstanding about service-oriented architecture (SOA) is thinking of it as only another technical initiative for software reuse. Although SOA's reuse potential is real and good,...
Economists are debating the length and depth of the economic impact of the credit crunch and the October market meltdown. What can enterprise architects do to survive or — dare we think it...
Sorting Through The Confusion Of Overlapping SOA Functions And Features
Defining an SOA platform is not as simple as some in the industry make it out to be. Serious pursuit of service-oriented architecture (SOA) requires new and different characteristics in your...
Doing SOA Right Opens The Door To A Much Bigger Architecture Vision
Sparked by a tinderbox of economic jitters and technology backlash, a recent thread of industry discussion cries out, "SOA is dead!" Although many have had fun with the discussion, it is in fact...
Materials To Promote Understanding Reference Architectures And Their Value
Design patterns, proven technology stacks, and well-documented application infrastructure are fundamental tools for promoting common practices in the design of business solutions. Enterprises often...
Step Aside, Model-View-Controller — PVS Must Take Center Stage
It is time for a major shift in the top-level design model for applications. Model-view-controller (MVC) has been the dominant framework for tying together the user interface and business logic of an...
For a single, isolated solution delivery project, it's OK to think of service-oriented architecture (SOA) as just Web services (WS) standards for better application integration: Your application...
Processes Provide Structure; BPM And Other Technologies Enable Rich, Ongoing Process Optimization
Your organization's business processes cut across application boundaries, but traditional architectures reinforce these boundaries. In contrast with 20th-century solution models, which center on...
A conceptual architecture is a tool that enterprise architects can use to enhance communication, provide context, and aid direction setting. Though there are many situations in which an architect...
Design patterns, proven technology stacks, and well-documented application infrastructure are fundamental tools for promoting common practices in the design of business solutions. Enterprises create...
In 2008, enterprise architects will find themselves at the center of a struggle to change their organizations into significantly more agile enterprises. As solution delivery morphs from traditional...
Business capability maps, as a key element of business architecture, are central to laying a new and better foundation for technology strategy. To build on this foundation, we introduce Forrester's...

Design patterns, proven technology stacks, and well-documented application infrastructure are fundamental tools for promoting common practices in the design of business solutions. Enterprises create...