Enterprise Architecture Frameworks for Security Establishment

Transformation is a process that is welcomed by almost all enterprises and Governments in order to make them ready for new challenges. Changing work environment and expectations of the individuals are the main driving forces behind such transformations. However, these changes, considering large enterprises, are not that easy and many times need a total shift in technologies (IT) adopted by them. This shift in technology also brings a shift in the working style of enterprises. Out of various technological requirements, security is considered as paramount importance in order to deliver safe and trustworthy solutions. Currently, the enterprises are practicing security establishments under various arenas viz. Network & Application Firewalls, Anti-Virus Software, Network Proxy, Endpoint Detection & Response, Vulnerability Patching, Intrusion Detection and Protection Systems, Role-Based Access Control, Identity & Access Management, and Secure Operating Environment etc. To establish these security requirements in an enterprise at later stage, require many systems / sub-systems to be implemented bearing a significant cost, efforts, and time. This leads to a need of such an Enterprise Architecture (EA) that keeps all the security requirements of the enterprises ‘right from the inception itself’ by reducing significant cost, efforts etc. with improved security. Various Enterprise Architecture Frameworks (EAFs) are available in the literature to safely and intelligently transform an enterprise/Government from its "as is" version to desired level. In this paper, attempts have been made to explore the existing EAFs on the basis of their security considerations at various levels of implementation. Thereafter, strengths and weaknesses of each EAF have been identified and on this basis as well as adoption outcomes, a comparative study of major EAFs has also been accomplished.