The meeting agreed that the main usage scenario for a Cloud Computing reference architecture is that the Enterprise Architecture team uses it, in conjunction with other reference architectures and models, as an input to the process of developing an enterprise reference architecture. The enterprise reference architecture is in turn used as the basis for development of enterpise and solution architectures.
The meeting then agreed on requirements that the Cloud Computing reference architecture must satisfy, including that it should:
- Be a governance tool that helps ensure solution conformance
- Be usable by product developers to assist product definition and design
- Assist in the integration of cloud solutions, as well as their development
- Be appropriate for dynamic ecosystems, and not simply be a static model of the enterprise
It then compared submissions from five member companies, also taking into account ongoing work at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
From these inputs, it drafted a list of capabilities that should be described by the reference architecture, and a list of roles related to it. The architecture must accommodate multiple views appropriate to different stakeholders internal and external to the enterprise within the ecosystem. The roles form a starting point for the identification of these stakeholders.
