The Old Pictures: Boxes, Binaries and the Cloud

All courses / Landscape / Module 1 / Chapter 2

Learning objectives

After the lesson the participant can:

• Explain what each of the four old pictures was good for and what each hides.
• Apply the five questions for testing a picture to a diagram from the participant's own organisation.
• Compare the shares of EU enterprises using each of Eurostat's eight AI technology types in 2025.
• List the requirements the chapter sets for a better picture.

Key concepts

The four old pictures

The architecture diagram of boxes joined by arrows, the single box labelled AI, the two camps of humans versus machines, and the cloud. Each served well in an earlier landscape and each hides most of what matters in the present one.

The diagram survey

The author's own count, in November 2026, of the 284 diagram files of the seven volumes: 275 are flowcharts, 274 use the rectangle, none carries a legend, and usage modes and autonomy levels are drawn as such in only 16 and 26 diagrams.

Eight technology types

Eurostat does not ask whether an enterprise uses AI; it asks about eight technologies one at a time. In 2025 the shares ran from 11.75 per cent for text mining to 1.39 per cent for AI that moves machines autonomously.

Five questions for a picture

Who acts? With whose identity? At which level? Who decides? How has it changed? Any diagram of technology at work can be tested with them in a minute.

Single source of truth

The chapter's requirement that pictures be rendered from one model kept as code, following Architecture as Code (Chapter 6): consistent pictures come from a single source of truth, not from consistent draughtsmen.

Interactive exercises

Do them here and get feedback at once. Choose a card and then where it belongs, or drag it.

Teaching plan

Discussion

1. The author reports that his own seven volumes use the same grey for two different things and carry no legend. What does that finding suggest about relying on careful individuals to make pictures comparable?
2. Among large AI-using enterprises ICT security is the most common purpose, while among all AI-using enterprises it is marketing or sales. Which population is your organisation usually compared with, and why does it matter?
3. The chapter says the bumpy cloud outline is a placeholder for a drawing nobody has made. Which facts about place and law would that drawing need to show for your organisation?

Written exercise

Self-test

Choose an answer to see whether it is right, or open the answer below each question.

1. According to the author's survey of the 284 diagrams of the seven volumes, how many carry a legend?

   1. All 284, because one style guide required it
   2. None of the 284, although six colour classes are shared
   3. The 275 flowcharts, but not the nine diagrams of any other type
   4. Only the 32 that use a rounded stadium shape
   Show the answer

   B. None of the 284, although six colour classes are shared
   The volumes share six colour classes defined by rank, and none of the 284 diagrams carries a legend. In consequence the same grey means the ambient usage mode in one volume and production systems in another.

2. Why does the chapter say the picture of humans versus machines puts its one line in the wrong place?

   1. Because it draws the line between Level 3 and Level 4, where a person is still informed and can stop each action
   2. Because Eurostat measures no technology in which a machine acts alone
   3. Because it draws the line after Level 0, while the consequential line runs between Level 2 and Level 3
   4. Because the line should separate vendors from the organisation's own staff
   Show the answer

   C. Because it draws the line after Level 0, while the consequential line runs between Level 2 and Level 3
   The binary puts one line where the landscape has four and puts it between Level 0 and everything else. The line that matters most runs between Level 2 and Level 3, above which a class of actions happens without anyone approving each one.

3. On the Commission's Digital Decade definition for cloud, which counts intermediate and sophisticated services only, what was the 2025 share of EU enterprises?

   1. 46.69 per cent, against a headline of 52.74 per cent
   2. 52.74 per cent, the same as the headline
   3. 44.91 per cent, the share of enterprises buying e-mail as a cloud service
   4. 14.86 per cent, the share buying computing power
   Show the answer

   A. 46.69 per cent, against a headline of 52.74 per cent
   The headline for paid cloud services in 2025 is 52.74 per cent. On the Digital Decade definition, measured on intermediate and sophisticated services only, the share is 46.69 per cent.