Enterprise architecture of IoT-based applications: A review

Enterprises are designing and implementing the Internet of Things (IoT), which is envisioned as the next generation of the Internet. Utilizing IoT technologies, different enterprise applications with different enterprise architectures (EAs) have been developed in mining, manufacturing, food location, power, and environmental monitoring systems. Enterprise Architecture plays a critical role in enterprise applications and affects enterprise integration, implementation, migration, and enterprise system performance. Enterprise components vary. In the case of migration, enterprise architecture needs to consider how the legacy system should fit into the picture. Enterprise architecture provides a holistic view of applications. IoT is one of the most promising technologies. It has special merits such as real-time, seamless information exchange, and ubiquity. The integration of IoT and EA would benefit many enterprises. One example is real-time services on heterogeneous devices. Thus, the research on IoT in EA is critical. The research question of this paper is what the common types of IoT enterprise architectures are and how IoT affects enterprise architecture. It reviews the literature in Compendex, Inspec, and IEEE databases regarding enterprise applications of the IoT. Besides the three common types of IoT enterprise architectures and the impact of IoT on the enterprise domain including data collecting, network and communication, and storage and computing, it also classifies enterprise information systems (EISs) and identifies the challenges and trends. It contributes to the enterprise architecture and IoT domains by clearly identifying the types of IoT EA and suggesting a domain data-collecting and information-sharing approach. Practitioners can refer to these common types and design their systems. Theoretically, it extends the system view by adding stage concepts.