Identifying Contextual Properties of Software Architecture in Cloud Computing

This paper argues that the contextual properties of cloud-enabled software architecture should be identified and understood differently by cloud consumers. The existing architectures are not designed to exploit the contextual properties of cloud computing. The emergence of cloud computing virtually forces cloud consumers to re-evaluate their software architectures in light of the cloud computing context which requires relinquish control over most architectural components to cloud providers. In a cloud-enabled architecture, the shift of ownership of and control over architectural components from consumers to cloud providers has profound impact on the ways cloud consumers design their software architecture. In this perspective, we go beyond the traditional definition of software architecture, and introduce the concepts of architectural scope, ownership, and control as the contextual properties of an architecture.