The FDIC’s Enterprise Architecture Framework

ARCHITECTURE OVERVIEW

The FDIC's framework for implementing its EA is based on Federal and industry best practices, including the Chief Information Officer (CIO) Council's Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF) and the Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture. FDIC's framework has been tailored to emphasize security. The FDIC EA framework complies with the FEAF and highlights the importance of security to all other components of the architecture.

The first component, the Business Architecture, focuses on FDIC's business needs. The next three components, the Data, Applications, and Technical Infrastructure Architectures, focus on the technological capabilities that support the business and information needs. The final component, the Security Architecture, focuses on specific aspects of interest to the Corporation that span the enterprise and must be integral parts of all other architectures.

The five components of the FDIC EA framework include:

• Business Architecture

  The Business Architecture describes the activities and processes performed by the Corporation to achieve its mission and to realize its vision and goals.

  Developing the Business Architecture is the first step in creating an Enterprise Architecture (EA) that links the Corporation's business needs to its Information Technology (IT) environment. Maximizing IT support for these requirements will optimize Corporate performance.

  The Business Architecture comprises the following:

  • Business Functions - Describe the major functions performed by the Corporation. The business functions of the Corporation are relatively stable over time, thus providing a reliable framework for analyzing business needs.
  • Organizational Structure - Describes the roles and responsibilities of the different organizational units within the Corporation in carrying out the business functions.

  The Business Architecture offers the following improvements:

  • Enhances collaboration and information sharing
  • Incorporates best practices from government and industry
  • Provides consistent implementation of common, shared tasks
  • Reduces the number of steps needed to accomplish business transactions

  and the following benefits:

  • Provides necessary information to solve problems and answer questions
  • Reduces risk to the Corporation and its stakeholders
  • Improves support for day-to-day operations
  • Streamlines business processes

• Data Architecture

The Data Architecture describes the activities required to obtain and maintain data that supports the information needed by the Corporation’s major business areas. Data and information are different. Data is the foundation of information. Data is the raw material that is processed and refined to generate information. Information consists of a collection of related data that has been processed into a form that is meaningful to the recipient.

Within the Data Architecture, there is a framework for creating and maintaining an adaptable data infrastructure. It serves as a blueprint for defining, storing, and managing data with respect to existing and planned information management activities. Data Architecture focuses on the following:

• Defining data that is captured or created, based on its usage within the Corporation
• Ensuring the integrity of the data by applying business rules and validation criteria before it is stored and used
• Storing, securing, and managing the data while addressing requirements for protecting that which is sensitive and classified
• Retrieving and formatting the data for presentation to the requesting user;
• Ensuring timely access to high quality, consistent, and reliable data
• Providing data to Corporate users in a format that is appropriate to their assigned tasks and data format and presentation preferences
• Delivering data to authenticated and authorized users wherever and whenever the need, regardless of the data’s physical storage format and location

The Data Architecture offers the following improvements:

• Provides a valuable corporate resource that has real value and that aids in decision making
• Consolidates databases and employs uniform database management methods and procedures
• Enables data sharing by providing a common set of policies, procedures, and standards governing data storage, access, management, and exchange for both the short and the long term
• Allows information to be accessed and displayed in a manner sufficiently adaptable to meet a wide range of EA users and their corresponding methods of access
• Completes specification of the Corporate Data Model and standard data elements

and the following benefits:

• Provision of an organizing framework. The architecture draws the lines on the map in terms of what the individual components are, how they fit together, who owns what parts, and priorities.
• Reduction of redundant data and data collection efforts by capturing, editing, and validating data at its source.
• Improved data timeliness, reliability, flexibility, and maintenance. The architecture allows for adding new data sources; interface standards allow plug and play; and the model and metadata allow impact analysis and single-point changes.
• Faster development and reuse. Warehouse developers are better able to understand the data warehouse process, data base contents, and business rules more quickly.
• Provision of support and data management for all types of data, both structured and unstructured.
• Enforcement of consistent authorized access to data.

• Applications Architecture

The Applications Architecture describes the major types of applications that manage data to produce the information needed to support the activities of the Corporation. The Applications Architecture provides a framework that enables the migration from the current applications catalog and software development environment to the target integrated applications, development and engineering environments. The target architecture promotes the use of commercial and government off-the-shelf products, consolidating applications, where applicable, and the use of emerging technologies where appropriate.

The Applications Architecture can be described from two perspectives:

• The types of applications that support the Corporation's three major business areas and resource management activities; and
• The environment that supports the development, acquisition, maintenance, and operations of applications.

The Applications Architecture offers the following improvements:

• Employs industry standards and best practices for development, deployment and operations, and maintenance of Corporate applications
• Uses modular components for application development, where feasible and practical
• Employs web-based applications, where feasible and practical
• Coordinates development efforts across the Corporation

and the following benefits:

• Improves productivity of technical and end-user staff
• Enhances responsiveness to accommodate changes in business processes and needs
• Reduces duplication of efforts
• Provides methods, techniques, and tools that promote the efficient development of software applications

• Technical Infrastructure Architecture

The IT infrastructure provides access to application systems and office automation tools used in performance of the business processes. The Corporation places high priority on maintaining a consistent, available, and reliable technical infrastructure.

The Technical Architecture describes the underlying technology for the Corporation's business, data, and application processing. It includes the technologies used for communications, data storage, application processing, and computing platforms.

The Technical Architecture offers the following improvements:

• Provides standard infrastructure services
• Employs standard platform configurations
• Increases interoperability across platforms
• Consolidates network operations and support
• Provides path for IT evolution to new technologies
• Provides link to business requirements

and the following benefits:

• Promotes flexibility and scalability when incorporating new technologies
• Improves performance, reliability, and cycle times
• Improves response to trouble resolution
• Increases efficient use of IT resources and avoids unnecessary costs

• Security Architecture

The Security Architecture establishes a framework for integrating safeguards into all layers of the FDIC's Enterprise Architecture. The security architecture uses a risk management and information assurance strategy that provides access control, confidentiality, integrity, and non-repudiation for the Corporation's information and systems.

The Security Architecture offers the following improvements:

• Protects IT assets against threats
• Standardizes security solutions
• Employs intelligent risk management methods and techniques
• Enhances awareness of security
• Ensures appropriate access to IT assets

and the following benefits:

• Protects critical IT assets and information
• Improves management decision-making regarding security
• Improves threat reduction, detection, and response
• Integrates security from a Corporate perspective