A method for the generation and evaluation of architecture alternatives on the cloud

Capability focused analysis of system of systems architecture alternatives often only considers a small number of alternatives. The analysis typically includes nonlinear aspects which demand a more thorough exploration of the design space. A method is presented for the automatic generation and evaluation of architecture alternatives that has been adapted to cloud computing resources. Both different system portfolios and different operational architectures can be analyzed in a unified way. The authors develop a declarative notation for describing system of system architecture alternatives. The method (CFML) can be used to enumerate and evaluate a larger portion of the decision space.