Cloud Computing Patterns

Abstract

Patterns are a widely used concept in computer science to describe good solutions to reoccurring problems in an abstract form. Such conceptual solutions can then be applied in concrete use cases regardless of used technologies, such as software, middleware, or programming languages. As cloud computing is a new and developing field of commerce, new products and technologies are constantly made available to cloud users. In this scope, market dynamics often lead to confusing service descriptions. While advertising the individual properties of a specific cloud service may help in positioning it on the competitive market of cloud computing, they obfuscate the common underlying concepts. We therefore employ a pattern-like description language to describe cloud service models and cloud types in an abstract form to categorize the offerings of cloud providers. Further, we give reoccurring architectural patterns on how to design, build, and manage applications that use these cloud services. The abstracted form of these architectural patterns make them applicable to challenges that developers of cloud application face today, independent of the actual technologies and cloud services that they are using.