Enterprise Architectures for Cloud Computing

In this paper we describe an approach to graphically externalize the cloud potential of a company, considering its architectural description. For this purpose it is shown how current architectural description can be extended, in terms of knowledge and graphical representation. The goal is to focus on the most important features and aspects to consider during the evaluation of shifting into a cloud environment. Even if each company has different strategies and approaches to its business activities, there are some domains related to the shift in a cloud environment that should be considered in any case. This paper shows how these main areas can be taken into account in order to extend the architectural representation of a company and express its cloud readiness.