ArchiLU and Avolution ABACUS: Comparing Two Enterprise Architecture Tools
Avolution presents ABACUS as an architecture tool that automates assessments and builds roadmaps. ArchiLU links each architecture object to its owner and to the decisions that concern it.
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Two tools, two descriptions
Avolution, established in 2001, publishes ABACUS. The vendor presents it as a tool that starts simply for a small team and supports larger programmes. It mentions diagrams based on prebuilt frameworks and automated assessments: cost roll-ups, business and technical fit, security scoring and trend tracking. It also mentions roadmaps for projects, technology lifecycles and risk initiatives. ABACUS is used in a web browser; according to the vendor, it is offered as a service hosted on AWS or on the customer’s own servers.
ArchiLU is enterprise architecture software published in Luxembourg by MIP-IT SARL. Its graph links capabilities, value streams, processes, applications, technologies, providers and contracts, each with its owner. Requests, architecture documents and Board decisions rely on the same graph.
Criteria that distinguish two tools
Both tools describe an architecture. The differences that matter to a buyer concern how information is maintained, decided on and exposed.
- Modelling: the metamodel, the notations supported and the role of quantitative assessments.
- Ownership: who completes each object, who confirms it, and what the tool shows when nobody is accountable.
- Decisions: the trail of a request, the document examined and the reasoning behind the decision.
- Regulation: the chain that links a critical or important function to its ICT providers and their contracts.
- Hosting: the data region, the vendor’s subprocessors and the deployment options.
- Exchange: imports, connectors and export formats, including at the end of the contract.
How ArchiLU answers these criteria
In ArchiLU, each object can have an owner, and objects without an owner stay visible. If your rules require it, the person designated accepts or declines the designation. Every twelve months, each owner receives a task to confirm their objects.
A request is qualified as a decision record or an architecture document according to your rules. The Board keeps the decision, its reasoning, its author and the version of the document examined. For DORA, each function carries its criticality and is linked to its processes, applications, ICT providers and their contracts.
Each organisation has its own dedicated instance, hosted in the European Union; deployment on your infrastructure is an optional service, quoted separately. The repository is imported through an Excel workbook and exported to Excel, Word and PDF, the exchange format of architecture tools and PlantUML. Screens, tasks and help are available in French, English and German.
Two usage profiles
A team that mainly expects quantitative assessments, dashboards and roadmaps built from its data will find these themes in Avolution’s presentation of ABACUS. It should check the depth of the metamodel and the effort needed to feed it on a real scope.
An organisation that wants business, IT, risk and management to contribute to the same repository, with named owners and traceable decisions, should examine these points in ArchiLU. ArchiLU’s offers include unlimited users, readers included.
Testing on your own case
A feature grid does not settle a choice between two tools. Choose a real scope: a critical function, its applications, their providers and a current request. Ask each vendor to document it, then compare the time spent, the gaps flagged and what each role sees.
ArchiLU can be tried free for one month on your own instance, in service within two working days. At the end of the month, the instance becomes your subscription or is deleted with its data.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the main difference between ArchiLU and Avolution ABACUS?
- Avolution highlights ABACUS’s modelling, automated assessments and roadmaps. ArchiLU highlights the owner of each object, the Board’s traceable decisions and the DORA chain. The choice depends on the intended use and should be checked on a real scope.
- Where is the data hosted?
- For ArchiLU, each organisation has its own dedicated instance, hosted in the European Union, with deployment on your infrastructure available as an optional service, quoted separately. For ABACUS, ask Avolution for the hosting region, subprocessors and deployment options that apply to your contract.
- How do you move from one tool to the other?
- Start by listing the models actually in use and the export formats available. ArchiLU takes in data through an Excel workbook, with one tab per object type and the links between them. Pilot the migration on one domain before extending it.