In practice, the design and architecture of a cloud varies among cloud providers. We present a generic evaluation framework for the performance, availability and reliability characteristics of various cloud platforms. We describe a generic benchmark architecture for cloud databases, specifically NoSQL database as a service. It measures the performance of replication delay and monetary cost.

Service Level Agreements (SLA) represent the contract which captures the agreed upon guarantees between a service provider and its customers. The specifications of existing service level agreements (SLA) for cloud services are not designed to flexibly handle even relatively straightforward performance and technical requirements of consumer applications. We present a novel approach for SLA-based management of cloud-hosted databases from the consumer perspective and an end-to-end framework for consumer-centric SLA management of cloud-hosted databases. The framework facilitates adaptive and dynamic provisioning of the database tier of the software applications based on application-defined policies for satisfying their own SLA performance requirements, avoiding the cost of any SLA violation and controlling the monetary cost of the allocated computing resources. In this framework, the SLA of the consumer applications are declaratively defined in terms of goals which are subjected to a number of constraints that are specific to the application requirements. The framework continuously monitors the application-defined SLA and automatically triggers the execution of necessary corrective actions (scaling out/in the database tier) when required. The framework is database platform-agnostic, uses virtualization-based database replication mechanisms and requires zero source code changes of the cloud-hosted software applications.

This book provides a collection of cutting-edge research roadmaps that attempt to determine and perhaps even shape the future of software architecture research. It contains a distillation of the outputs from several ICSA 2022 working sessions and the subsequent work from the authors.Software architecture research involves the study of the design and analysis of software systems, focusing on the high-level structure and organization of software components, as well as the interactions and relationships between them. It also focuses on the non-technical aspects of software design: how teams are organized, and how they communicate and work together. The first three chapters of the book investigate software architecture for emerging classes of software systems with widespread interest, including quantum computing, artificial intelligence-centric systems, and systems within value-based ecosystems. Subsequent chapters investigate the role of architecture in relation to modern development processes; sharing of data as an enabler for furthering research in software architecture; and teaching software architecture. In summary, this book provides an overview of the latest research and directions in software architecture, covering a wide array of current and emerging topics.  Specifically, this book is a valuable resource for researchers and students to aid them in identifying fruitful paths for future research.