Definitions and architecture

I am not a big fan of using definitions as a starting point.  In technology many useful and successful concepts have escaped definition. People still argue about what exactly is an object in an object-oriented system.  There is no scarcity of definitions for software architecture. The internet cannot be pinned down to a simple definition. A definition, however, it is still useful in certain contexts.

While people might argue about the exact definition of cloud computing (which is probably a futile effort at this time), a working definition can be used to evolve a shared meaning. This is especially useful in software architecture where clear communication among stakeholders is extremely important. Software architects interact closely with business, users, developers, testers, compliance groups and others and before you move your architecture to the cloud, you should state exactly what cloud computing means  in the context of the system you are designing.

Definitions will differ based on whether you are a consumer of the cloud based  services or a provider and with more and more of private and hybrid clouds out there,  organizations and enterprises are fast becoming internal providers of cloud based  computing services which is blurring the line between providers and consumers of a  cloud “style� service.  Today, from a consumer’s point of view, a cloud based compute service:

• is implemented as a pool of servers though the consumer may not have direct access to the underlying pool.
• is characterized by very high degree of automation typically providing both  programmatic access (for integration) and graphical or command line user interfaces.
• provides an abstraction of compute services along with constraints that enable  the provider’s offering.
• is priced on a pay-as-you-go basis. Consumers only pay for what they use.

When you take these along with (effective) infinite scalability and pay-per-use utility model into consideration and design a system for the cloud, there are several issues that you should take  into account. I will discuss a few architectural considerations that must be taken into account while designing a cloud based system. The usual design principles and best practices for building a cloud based are not very different from what you probably already use as part of your enterprise architecture standards and/or other best practices for building large scale distributed systems; but some of these may be unique.

Category: Cloud Computing, Design, Programming | 3 Comments »