The role of architects fundamentally changes in modern enterprises: they must connect the penthouse, where the business strategy is defined, with the engine room, where the enabling technologies are implemented.

Writing is a form of therapy for me: Enterprise Integration Patterns (2003), 37 Things One Architect Knows (2016), The Software Architect Elevator (2020), Cloud Strategy (2020), Platform Strategy (2024)My content has been featured in "97 Things Every Architect Should Know", "97 Things Every Programmer Should Know", "SOA Expertenwissen", "Best Software Writing", "IEEE Software", and "IEEE Internet Computing".

Simplifying the serverless developer experience.

Most people want their government to be more secure, more efficient, and easier to interact with. There's one obvious way to make that happen: go, build it! I was offered a Smart Nation Fellowship to help shape Singapore's cloud strategy and to help build digital capability in Singapore.

Helping strategic JAPAC customers transform their IT to maximize the benefit they obtain from moving to the cloud.

As the first Chief Architect inside Allianz IT Delivery I built a team that defines and oversees the architecture strategy across infrastructure, applications, and operations to enable digital transformation like digital ecosystems and private cloud infrastructure. The team rides the "Architect Elevator" from strategic roadmap development down to solution implementation and operation and is thus the antidote to the proverbial ivory tower.

Defined the IT strategy and architecture that drives the convergence between the digital world and insurance. Key aspects included complexity reduction through infrastructure harmonization and increased business agility through an on-premise cloud infrastructure.

Initiated and ran a project to leverage NFC technology to allow conversion tracking from mobile ad impression to store visits and in-store actions. Designed, built and deployed the solution from the hardware up to product definition and pilot customer acquisition. Multiple patent applications filed.Built up the Mobile Monetization team of 5 engineers in Tokyo, which resulted in significant mobile revenue improvements. Received "OC Award" for Mobile Monetization.Refactored the AdWords Front-end code base, one of Google's most critical and complex Java applications at the time, to introduce a business domain layer and achieve better separation between business logic and database.Developed one of Google's most successful hands-on technical training programs, which covers the design, implementation, deployment, and monitoring of a distributed system on Google infrastructure, including GFS storage, Bigtable storage, MapReduce data processing and other proprietary technologies.

Led the enterprise integration practice. Provided advisory services in enterprise architecture, SOA and asynchronous messaging architectures to key clients around the globe. Collected and documented experiences in the seminal book Enterprise Integration Patterns.

Deployed innovative solutions as part of Deloitte's DotCom business unit with a focus on packaged and bespoke billing and Telco provisioning systems. Enterprise integration using TIBCO and Vitria.

Designed and implemented large-scale custom systems for Franchise Tax Board of California tax audit and collections. As lead architect, I drove key technical decisions while leading a team of 15 developers, and coding critical system components, such as laptop/desktop synchronization.Generated over $300 million in additional revenue for the client within the first two years of operation.