Architectural Principles for Cloud Software

A cloud is a distributed Internet-based software system providing resources as tiered services. Through service-orientation and virtualization for resource provisioning, cloud applications can be deployed and managed dynamically. We discuss the building blocks of an architectural style for cloud-based software systems. We capture style-defining architectural principles and patterns for control-theoretic, model-based architectures for cloud software. While service orientation is agreed on in the form of service-oriented architecture and microservices, challenges resulting from multi-tiered, distributed and heterogeneous cloud architectures cause uncertainty that has not been sufficiently addressed. We define principles and patterns needed for effective development and operation of adaptive cloud-native systems.