Engineering Next-Generation Digital Enterprises Through Integrated Technology Ecosystems

The accelerating fusion of cloud computing, application programming interface (API) ecosystems, microservice architectures, and zero-trust security has reframed enterprise architecture (EA) from a static IT-planning discipline into a continuously evolving digital ecosystem-engineering problem. Despite substantial practitioner activity, the information systems literature lacks an integrative reference framework that connects dynamic-capability-based strategy formation to the concrete architectural mechanisms—API governance, platform orchestration, interoperability standards, and zero-trust security—through which enterprises actually build integrated technology ecosystems. This paper addresses that gap. Drawing on a critical synthesis of digital transformation, enterprise architecture, platform ecosystem, and cybersecurity literatures, the study develops a Proposed Integrated Technology Ecosystem (ITE) reference architecture spanning five interdependent layers: business strategy and governance, integration and orchestration, data and interoperability, security and trust, and cloud infrastructure. The paper further proposes a five-level Digital Ecosystem Integration Maturity Model and a small set of formally defined, theory-grounded evaluation metrics—including a Composite Integration Maturity Score and a Service Coupling Index—intended to guide future empirical assessment. Because no primary organizational data collection was undertaken, all quantitative constructs are presented explicitly as proposed, illustrative instruments rather than as measured results, and an illustrative (hypothetical) scenario is used only to demonstrate the framework's applicability. The discussion interprets the framework against dynamic capabilities theory and platform governance theory, identifies governance, security, and legacy-modernization limitations, and outlines a concrete agenda for longitudinal, multi-case empirical validation. The paper contributes a theoretically grounded, practically actionable architecture that researchers can operationalize and that practitioners can use to diagnose ecosystem integration maturity without presupposing a single vendor stack or technology.