Connected Consumer Experience in Automobiles

I've been published again with some peers in DPE, Christoph Schittko and Darryl Hogan. The article is in Issue 14 of The Architecture Journal, our magazine targeted to architects.  There are a couple of ways to get to the content. First, you could get it right off the web here, or you could get it from the cool Journal reader. Either way, hope you like what we did. I had a blast working with Christoph and Darryl, who are Architect Evangelists in US-Central Region - just like me, except they are much smarter. We also worked with Christof Sprenger (who I termed as "the nice Christoph" due to his meek ways), and we were sponsored by Simon Guest (check out his blog, the byline says "the only guy at Microsoft allowed to login as guest"). Thanks everyone for letting me add a little to the process. I definitely learned a lot!

Summary: What sets a vehicle apart from a hunk of metal and four wheels? It’s all about features. Manufacturers are constantly adding newer media devices, more powerful motors, and softer seats, all in the name of improving the driver’s experience. Yet with all these improvements, auto manufacturers have barely scratched the surface with respect to the capabilities of the myriad of software and services advances available in recent years...

There has been a lot of talk around services in the cloud and their application based on the consumption of services. Despite this, many reference architectures and papers aimed at demonstrating patterns for designing these systems have taken an idealistic approach to the application—frequently citing simple examples or applying scenarios that are not pragmatic. This paper defines a practical solution architecture based on a scenario one might encounter in everyday life. We intend to inspire architects to use the same approach to define innovative solutions for the problems they face.

The solution architecture defined here is a combination of real platform services that exist today and fabricated services that help round out the solution. This solution will demonstrate the application of Software + Services (S+S) to mobile application architecture as a means to extend the digital lifestyle beyond the desktop. Security, privacy, and data architecture will be addressed broadly....