Like it or not, an institution's IT infrastructure is a matter with which institutional strategic planners must concern themselves. Information systems represent a significant investment, they perform mission-critical functions, and the appropriate use of information and learning technologies can have a critical part to play in delivering against particular strategic objectives. That said, the IT industry is awash with jargon (designed, a cynic might argue, to maintain a certain mystique and ensure there is a ready stream of work for the consulting industry) which makes it difficult for academic and administrative managers to get to grips with the choices facing them and the implications for the business. This paper attempts to explain some of the current trends in enterprise architectures and to consider the benefits and pitfalls of various options for the higher education (HE) sector, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). (Contains 1 table.)