Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is one of the most important layers of Cloud Computing. However, there is an evident deficiency of mechanisms for analysis, comparison and evaluation of IaaS cloud implementations, since no unified taxonomy or reference architecture is available. In this article, we propose a unified taxonomy and an IaaS architectural framework. The taxonomy is structured arou...

Component selection is a key step to build component-based software systems, but in practice available components’ information is usually imprecise, incomplete, uncertain and/or unreliable; good components may pass unnoticed. This article presents the Azimut approach to generate alternate assemblies of Off-the-Shelf Component as candidate solutions at early project stages. Azimut deals explicit...

This paper reports on an investigation into how base isolation can produce benefits for the architectural design of hospitals. If a relatively new technology such as base isolation can be coupled with interdisciplinary collaboration from the birth of a project, it seems possible to achieve an improvement not only in their seismic, but also in their architectural design. The methodology adopted ...

In this paper we present an approach for supporting the semi-automated architectural abstraction of architectural models throughout the software lifecycle. It addresses the problem that the design and implementation of a software system often drift apart as software systems evolve, leading to architectural knowledge evaporation. Our approach provides concepts and tool support for the semiautoma...

Systems are naturally constructed in hierarchies in which design choices made at higher levels of abstraction levy requirements on system components at lower levels of abstraction. Thus, whether an aspect of the system is a design choice or a requirement depends largely on one’s vantage point within the hierarchy of system components. Furthermore, systems are often constructed middle-out rather...

Processor performance advances are increasingly inhibited by limitations in thermal power dissipation. Part of the problem is the lack of architectural power estimates before implementation. Although high-performance designs exist that dissipate low power, the method for nding these designs has been through trial-and-error. This paper presents systematic techniques to nd low-power, high-perform...

As software systems grow in size and complexity , the demand for languages and tools to capture higher-order abstractions than those supported by programming languages increases. One of these abstractions is the architectural design, which speciies a sys-tem's components, their interfaces, and their interrelationships using textual or visual notations. Although there have been signiicant advanc...

Software architectural modeling offers a natural framework for designing and analyzing modern large-scale software systems and for composing systems from reusable off-theshelf components. However, the nature of componentbased software presents particularly unique challenges for testing component-based systems. To date there have been relatively few attempts to establish a sound theoretical basi...

Component-oriented programming supports constructing software systems by composing independent components into a software architecture. However, existing approaches decouple implementation code from architecture, allowing inconsistencies, causing confusion, violating architectural properties, and inhibiting software evolution. ArchJava is an extension to Java that seamlessly unifies software ar...

As software systems grow in size and complexity, the demand for languages and tools to capture higher-order abstractions than those supported by programming languages increases. One of these abstractions is the architectural design, which speci es a system's components, their interfaces, and their interrelationships using textual or visual notations. Although there have been signi cant advances...