Extending enterprise architectures for adopting the internet of things – Lessons learned from the smartPORT projects in Hamburg

Abstract

In many industries, companies are currently testing and adopting internet of things (IoT) technology. By adopting IoT, they seek to improve efficiency or to develop and offer new services. In current projects, a variety of IoT systems is used and gets interconnected with existing or newly developed application systems. Due to the integration of IoT and the related cloud systems, existing enterprise architecture (EA) models have to be extended. By drawing on the example of the Hamburg smartPORT initiative, we analyze the consequences of IoT projects on the enterprise architecture. As a result, we present an EA metamodel extension, which includes (1) sensor, physical object, smart brick, and fog system types, (2) a smart brick management database and (3) data streams, cloud systems and service applications. Furthermore, we discuss implications regarding a to-be architecture.