An architecture developed for information technology meets functional service requirements by absorbing and integrating different technologies and their products, as shown through the simple diagram in Figure 8.1. In that sense, as Chapter 1 brought to the reader’s attention, an effective architectural solution will serve as a metalevel of the whole aggregate being built. Through its metalevel status, the architecture ensures a framework for more detailed design, aiming to make feasible:

a holistic approach, ◾ greater elegance, ◾

higher performance, and ◾ if possible, a reduced cost per function. ◾

Following up on this definition, the cloud computing’s architecture will perform as integrator of multiple cloud components belonging to the four pillars discussed in Chapters 1 and 2. It will also incorporate an important element served by the cloud: the end users’ clients and their application programming interfaces (APIs). As Chapter 2 brought to the reader’s attention, there are different types of clients:

the now classical workstations and PCs with hard disks; ◾ thin clients deprived of storage bandwidth, the latter being mapped into the ◾ vendor’s database infrastructure; and mobile clients (often thin type), integrating with fixed clients and networked ◾ with the other system resources.