Architecting the Cloud: Design Decisions for Cloud Computing Service Models (SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS)

FOREWORD

I first met Mike Kavis when he brought our Licensed ZapThink Architect SOA course to his company in Florida several years ago. As the vice president of architecture for this firm, Mike hoped to wrangle his group of developers to help them think like architects. And while I couldn’t transform developers into architects in four days, the thrust of the course was to help people think like architects.

The book you have in your hands now has the same mission. Cloud computing as an approach to IT infrastructure is still emerging, and thus the technical details are still in flux—but the architectural principles of the cloud are now falling into place. But only by thinking like an architect will you be able to take advantage of the full power of the cloud.

Architects are in a unique position in the IT shop, because they have one foot in the business and the other squarely ensconced in the technology. They must understand the nuts and bolts of what works and what doesn’t without falling victim to the techie tunnel vision that inflicts so many IT people. But they must also live and breathe the business: its strategy, its goals, and most importantly, its problems.

Architecting the Cloud connects these dots. Mike Kavis has intentionally avoided product- or vendor-specific details, focusing instead on the challenges that architects, as well as stakeholders in the architecture, should address—in other words, connecting the business problem with the appropriate solution. A truism to ...