The IBM CIO Enterprise Architecture team has turned the EA into a living lab in conjunction with the IBM Virtual Universe Community to enable architects and business leaders to experience business processes as they flow through the landscape using 3D Internet virtual world technology. The ability to "fly" through the architecture as an order (and other key processes) enables one to visualize/experience the areas for greatest simplification opportunities and gain a better understanding on how SOA techniques enable business agility by comparing before and after architectures. The immersive 3D Internet virtual world helps the explorer of the architecture collaborate with their fellow explorers who are experiencing the same process and data flows at the same time. Furthermore, a comprehensive understanding between business processes, data, applications and the underlying infrastructure is gained much faster and more thoroughly than charts might convey.
