Architecture Principles

In solution architecture, architecture principles are the primary design rules of a system. They limit the design freedom for detail designers, builders, and users. For instance, an architecture principle for IT infrastructures could be to use Windows as the primary operating system for all servers. This principle makes the resulting architecture better manageable, as knowledge of only one operating system needs to be learned. At the same time, it limits the freedom of choice of components built upon the infrastructure: software only available for Linux cannot be used.

Architecture principles must be defined before starting a new infrastructure project. Usually the principles are generic and exist already. Principles should always be written down, including their motivation (why did we choose for this principle?) and implications (what freedom does this principle limit?).

Apart from architecture principles, design principles can be defined to limit the design freedom even further. As an example, design principles can describe how the naming of servers is organized. This is not architecturally relevant (since it is realatively easy to change later on and it can be decided at a later time), but still very important when creating a new IT infrastructure landscape.

After the implementation of the IT system, it is maintained by system managers, usually for many years. The architecture principles used when the system was designed must be used and guarded during the complete life cycle of the system to avoid instability of the system. Systems managers must therefore be familiar with the architecture principles of a system when they start managing it.


This entry was posted on Friday 12 April 2013

Earlier articles

Quantum computing

Security at cloud providers not getting better because of government regulation

The cloud is as insecure as its configuration

Infrastructure as code

DevOps for infrastructure

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

(Hyper) Converged Infrastructure

Object storage

Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV)

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

What's the point of using Docker containers?

Identity and Access Management

Using user profiles to determine infrastructure load

Public wireless networks

Supercomputer architecture

Desktop virtualization

Stakeholder management

x86 platform architecture

Midrange systems architecture

Mainframe Architecture

Software Defined Data Center - SDDC

The Virtualization Model

What are concurrent users?

Performance and availability monitoring in levels

UX/UI has no business rules

Technical debt: a time related issue

Solution shaping workshops

Architecture life cycle

Project managers and architects

Using ArchiMate for describing infrastructures

Kruchten’s 4+1 views for solution architecture

The SEI stack of solution architecture frameworks

TOGAF and infrastructure architecture

The Zachman framework

An introduction to architecture frameworks

How to handle a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack

Architecture Principles

Views and viewpoints explained

Stakeholders and their concerns

Skills of a solution architect architect

Solution architects versus enterprise architects

Definition of IT Architecture

What is Big Data?

How to make your IT "Greener"

What is Cloud computing and IaaS?

Purchasing of IT infrastructure technologies and services

IDS/IPS systems

IP Protocol (IPv4) classes and subnets

Infrastructure Architecture - Course materials

Introduction to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

Fire prevention in the datacenter

Where to build your datacenter

Availability - Fall-back, hot site, warm site

Reliabilty of infrastructure components

Human factors in availability of systems

Business Continuity Management (BCM) and Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)

Performance - Design for use

Performance concepts - Load balancing

Performance concepts - Scaling

Performance concept - Caching

Perceived performance

Ethical hacking

The first computers

Open group ITAC /Open CA Certification


Recommended links

Ruth Malan
Gaudi site
Esther Barthel's site on virtualization
Eltjo Poort's site on architecture


Feeds

 
XML: RSS Feed 
XML: Atom Feed 


Disclaimer

The postings on this site are my opinions and do not necessarily represent CGI’s strategies, views or opinions.

 

Copyright Sjaak Laan