In Search of Cloud Architecture

Does Platform as a Service (PaaS) exhibit a distinct architecture model?  What specific architectural components are required?

After reviewing architecture models from several vendors and industry organizations, I believe we are witnessing an early evolutionary period as we transition from web application architecture to cloud application architecture.  The analysis is based on reviewing the following vendor and analyst architecture diagrams:

• NIST Cloud Computing Reference Architecture [1,2]
• NIST Cloud Service Management [1,2]
• IBM Cloud Computing Reference Architecture [8,9]
• IBM Common Cloud Management Platform [8,9]
• Oracle Reference Architecture [3]
• Oracle Basic Platform as a Service Cloud Architecture [4]
• Sonata SaaS Enablement Services [16]
• JBoss in Cloud [5]
• RedHat OpenShift Flex Architecture [6]
• CloudFoundry Architecture [10]
• CloudBees PaaS Reference Architecture [11]
• HP CloudSystem Architecture [7]
• Progress OpenEdge SaaS Service Architecture [12]
• Intel SaaS Conceptual Architecture [13,14]
• Apprenda SaaSGrid Architecture [15]
• Amazon Web Services [17]
• Microsoft Azure [18]
• Forrester PaaS Reference Architecture [19]
• Gartner PaaS Reference Model [20]

What architecture components do you feel is necessary to maximize cloud characteristics (i.e. on-demand self-service, rapid elasticity, resource pooling, and measured service) within the application layer?   What architecture components are required to make an application Cloud Native? References

NIST

[1] http://cloudstandardscustomercouncil.org/062011/presentations/NIST_RA_062111.pdf

[2] http://collaborate.nist.gov/twiki-cloud-computing/pub/CloudComputing/ReferenceArchitectureTaxonomy/NIST_SP_500-292_-_090611.pdf

Oracle Public Cloud

[3] http://cloud.oracle.com/mycloud/f?p=service:architecture:0#

[4] http://www.oracle.com/us/technologies/cloud/036500.pdf

RedHat OpenShift

[5] http://www.jboss.com/pdf/PaaSServicesDatasheet.pdf

[6] https://openshift.redhat.com/app/features

HP CloudSystem Architecture

[7] http://h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/pdfs/4AA3-4548ENW.pdf

IBM Cloud Computing Reference Architecture

[8] https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/c2028fdc-41fe-4493-8257-33a59069fa04/entry/chapter_13_cloud_computing_reference_architecture1?lang=en

[9] https://www.opengroup.org/cloudcomputing/uploads/40/23840/CCRA.IBMSubmission.02282011.doc

VMWare CloudFoundry

[10] http://www.slideshare.net/mccrory-me/cloud-foundry-a-developers-perspective

CloudBees

[11] http://www.slideshare.net/cloudbees/jax-harpreetmanaging-devtodeployinthecloud/download

Progress Software

[12] http://www.progress.com/docs/whitepapers/public/SaaS/SaaS-Architecture.pdf

INTEL IT

[13] http://download.intel.com/it/pdf/ArchitectingSoftwareasaService.pdf

[14] http://www.slideshare.net/Rinky25/architecting-software-as-a-service-for-the-enterprise

Apprenda

[15] http://apprenda.com/paas/for-enterprise-it/

Sonata

[16] http://www.sonata-software.com/web/sonata_en/innovation/centersofexcellence/saas.html

Amazon

[17]  http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2010/01/new-whitepaper-architecting-for-the-cloud-best-practices.html

Microsoft

[18] http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/Whitepapers/introducingwindowsazureplatform/

Gartner

[19] http://www.gartner.com/it/content/1525800/1525814/february_15_consider_platform_as_a_service_ynatis.pdf

Forrester

[20 http://www.cordys.com/cordyscms_sites/objects/197a838f8a2477cf076ff8d589253dee/reid_forrester_cordys_webinar_23_june_09_final.pdf