Enterprise Systems Architecture (ESA)

Definition - What does Enterprise Systems Architecture (ESA) mean?

Enterprise system architecture (ESA) is the overall IT system architecture of an organization. This architecture is the key part of managing and evolving IT systems, and therefore the business operations, of an organization. It consists of the architectures of individual systems and their relationships in the perspective of an organization.

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Techopedia explains Enterprise Systems Architecture (ESA)

An organization's enterprise system architecture must not be a monolithic illustration of the structure of its IT systems. Instead, it must be organized to mirror the dynamic and static structure of an organization in order to assist in every aspect of an organization’s business tasks. Enterprise system architecture corresponds to the organizational entities at different stages of granularity, such as the individual information systems, enterprise, enterprise units, etc.

The advantages of adopting efficient enterprise system architecture include:

Architecture Analysis: Assists in performing system analysis at the architectural level. This helps to support the system design process.
Business/System Understanding: Offers a concrete foundation for effectively understanding the business operations of an enterprise, which results in improved business management.
Business/System Planning: Offers a useful tool to plan numerous business activities, from strategic directions to local enhancement.
Restructuring and System Integration: Helps to make restructuring and system integration possible whenever a change in business operations happens in the organization, for example, at the time of mergers and diversification.
System Evolution: Offers required grounds for evaluating the outcome of major transformations in an organization, such as by replacing old systems with new systems, adding brand-new systems and decommissioning of outdated systems.