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A Pattern Language for Engineering Software for the Cloud

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Transactions on Pattern Languages of Programming V

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((TPLOP,volume 14630))

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Abstract

Software businesses are continuously increasing their presence in the cloud. While cloud computing is not a new research topic, designing software for the cloud is still challenging, requiring engineers to invest in research to become proficient at working with it.

Design patterns can be used to facilitate cloud adoption, as they provide valuable design knowledge and implementation guidelines for recurrent engineering problems.

This work introduces a pattern language for designing software for the cloud. We believe developers can significantly reduce their R&D time by adopting these patterns to bootstrap their cloud architecture. The language comprises 10 patterns, organized into four categories: Automated Infrastructure Management, Orchestration and Supervision, Monitoring, and Discovery and Communication.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Learn more about docker at https://www.docker.com/.

  2. 2.

    Xen and KVM are both open source virtualization servers. Learn more about the projects at https://www.xenproject.org/ and https://www.linux-kvm.org/.

  3. 3.

    LXC, OpenVZ and Vserver are three alternative container implementation. LXC was used internally by Docker until version 0.9, being replaced by lib-container since. You can learn more about these projects respectively at https://linuxcontainers.org/, https://openvz.org/ and http://linux-vserver.org/.

  4. 4.

    YAML is a human friendly data serialization standard for all programming languages. Learn more at http://www.yaml.org/.

  5. 5.

    Details at https://www.loggly.com/.

  6. 6.

    Project details available at www.bitreactive.com.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude to the PLoP, EuroPLoP, and SugarLoafPLoP conferences, where the contents of this article have been previously workshoped, and to the various individuals who contributed significantly to its development and refinement. Special thanks are extended to Robert Hanmer, Bogdana Botez, Eduardo Fernandez, and José Ruiz, for their insightful feedback during the shepherding of the original papers. Appreciation is also extended to the members of the writers workshops, including Tim Wellhausen, Andreas Seitz, Fei Li, Julio Moreno, Ralph Johnson, Joe Yoder, Antonio Tercero, Pedro Martos, Alessandro Leite, Renato Ferreira, Hironori Washizaki, Madiha Syed and Bharatkumar Sharma.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering, INESC TEC, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Tiago Boldt Sousa, Hugo Sereno Ferreira & Filipe Figueiredo Correia

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  1. Tiago Boldt Sousa
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  2. Hugo Sereno Ferreira
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  3. Filipe Figueiredo Correia
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Correspondence to Tiago Boldt Sousa .

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  1. University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA, USA

    Eugene Wallingford

  2. Universität Wien, Vienna, Austria

    Uwe Zdun

  3. Technische Hochschule Köln, Cologne, Germany

    Christian Kohls

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Sousa, T.B., Ferreira, H.S., Correia, F.F. (2025). A Pattern Language for Engineering Software for the Cloud. In: Wallingford, E., Zdun, U., Kohls, C. (eds) Transactions on Pattern Languages of Programming V. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 14630. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-70810-1_1

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