Navigating the Digital Enterprise: A Focus on Digital Double Technology
In the ever-evolving landscape of the digital enterprise, businesses are constantly seeking ways to harness the power of technology to enhance their operations and create value for stakeholders. One of the key components of this digital transformation is the concept of digital twins, which forms the foundation of a connected and secure digital ecosystem.
Understanding Digital Twins and Digital Doubles
To grasp the essence of the digital enterprise, it's essential to differentiate between digital twins and digital doubles. We introduced the Digital Double concept in 2016, predating the emergence of the digital twin concept. Digital twins primarily revolve around industrial IoT, supply chain operations and related digital assets. On the other hand, digital doubles expand beyond this scope, encompassing individuals and entities within the digital realm. Digital doubles essentially represent us in the digital world and facilitate connections within a digital ecosystem.
The inspiration for the concept of digital doubles can be traced back to movies like "Tron Legacy," where characters seamlessly operate within a digital environment, related to how digital doubles function. These digital representations of ourselves remain active even when we're not directly engaged with them. For instance, dating apps employ digital doubles to initiate interactions and facilitate connections on behalf of users.
The Architecture of a Digital Enterprise
In building a digital enterprise, it's crucial to adopt a unified architectural approach that integrates various aspects. Rather than creating separate digital and enterprise architectures, organisations should consolidate them into a single, cohesive framework. This integrated approach encompasses business architecture, information architecture, application architecture, and technology architecture.
Security, a key concern, starts at the business architecture level. By breaking down use cases into smaller domains using domain-driven design, organisations can tailor security measures to specific requirements. This approach ensures that each domain receives the necessary security attention.
API-Centric Security Architecture
An API-centric security architecture plays a pivotal role in securing digital assets within a digital enterprise. This architecture typically consists of an API gateway serving as the policy enforcement point (PEP), a policy decision point (PDP), and multiple policy information points (PIPs). Microservices may also act as PEPs in modern architectures, enhancing security at the backend.
Edge security is essential for safeguarding digital channels, including mobile apps, web platforms, and IoT applications. Applying security techniques to protect edge devices is crucial in a digital enterprise.
Embracing Developer-Centric Access Management
In the modern agile landscape, organisations are encouraged to adopt a developer-centric approach to access management. Rather than centralising security architects and strategies, they should embed security experts within development teams. This shift allows for proactive security integration from the inception of projects.
A robust digital platform is instrumental in this approach. It enforces security standards as templates and leverages CI/CD pipelines to ensure adherence to security protocols. Furthermore, a digital platform provides a zero-trust network, enhancing security across the enterprise.
Customer Identity and Access Management
Customer identity and access management (CIAM) hold immense significance in the digital realm, where consumer data is a prime target for attackers. Organisations must protect customer data rigorously, and CIAM provides the means to achieve this. The security maturity model guides organisations in gradually improving their security posture without disrupting business operations.
In summary, a successful digital enterprise requires a holistic approach that encompasses architecture, security, and access management. Digital doubles expand the boundaries of traditional digital twin technology and securing them is imperative. By embracing a unified architecture, API-centric security, developer-centric access management, and CIAM, organisations can navigate the digital landscape effectively, ensuring privacy, confidentiality, trust, and security for all stakeholders.
About WSO2
Founded in 2005, WSO2 enables thousands of enterprises, including hundreds of the world’s largest corporations, top universities, and governments, to drive their digital transformation journeys—executing more than 60 trillion transactions and managing over 1 billion identities annually. Using WSO2 for API management, integration, and customer identity and access management (CIAM), these organisations are harnessing the full power of their APIs to securely deliver their digital services and applications. Our open-source, API-first approach to software that runs on-premises and in the cloud helps developers and architects to be more productive and rapidly compose digital products to meet demand while remaining free from vendor lock-in. WSO2 has over 900 employees worldwide with offices in Australia, Brazil, Germany, India, Sri Lanka, the UAE, the UK, and the US. Visit https://wso2.com to learn more. Follow WSO2 on LinkedIn and X (Twitter).
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Authors
Asanka Abeysinghe
Asanka brings more than 20 years of industry experience to his role as WSO2 CTO, including the design and implementation of highly scalable distributed systems, service-oriented and microservice architectures in the financial domain, mobile platforms, and various business integration solutions. He is a regular speaker at numerous global events and many tech meetups in the San Francisco Bay Area. Additionally, Asanka is a committer within the Apache Software Foundation and a member of the Forbes Technology Council. He also is a book author who publishes the Architect to Architect blog and regularly contributes to technology industry publications.