ABACUS consists of metamodels and multiple architectures along with a view for each architecture. The solution provides a large set of libraries that are derived from industry standard frameworks such as TOGAF and several others. ABACUS has an XML-based file format that acts as an objects database. Any new file format that is added to ABACUS is stored as another object in an objects database. This feature is extremely helpful for the creation of new architecture models or adding enhancements to the existing metamodels, because these aspects can be done with the help of right-clicks and do not need any changes to the internal database as required by several other EA tools in the market.

The ABACUS approach that is used to define metamodels basically uses three key units, they are:

• Component
• Connection
• Constraints

These key units conform to the IEEE1471 standard. ABACUS ships with different libraries that contain these key units. The list of libraries that are present in ABACUS includes more than 50 prominent architectural patterns. The flexibility of Avolution provides support for a larger number of architectural frameworks when compared to other EA platforms that are available in the market. ABACUS has features that allow users to create new libraries or merge existing libraries to create a new one within a matter of minutes.

Apart from the tools that were discussed in this section, Gartner's magic quadrant, shown in the following image, provides the list of enterprise architecture platforms that are prominent in the enterprise architecture landscape. This could be used by any Enterprise Architect as a basis for decision making. For more on this, visit https://www.gartner.com/doc/reprints?id=1-2Q45NIB&ct=151020&st=sb.