Onion architecture: a new approach for XaaS (every-thing-as-a service) based virtual collaborations

Abstract

E-collaborations and Virtual Organizations (VO) are increasingly being adopted for completing goals that involve geographically dispersed teams. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) standards has been used to implement virtual organizations. Transformation in computing paradigms and software tools with the passage of time has introduced modern ways to achieve the said targets. Reference Architecture for Virtual Organization (RAVO) was proposed as a standard for VOs [1]. RAVO is based on XaaS (Every-thing-as-a-Service) approach and is presented as a layered model. From software engineering perspective, different patterns can be adopted for implementation. Onion architecture is one of the emerging architectures based on the dependency inversion principle. The paper presents the RAVO as an Onion architecture and a prototype for formal organization by decoupling all of its components. The components are encapsulated inside one another. This approach extends and makes it easy for Software Engineers to implement a standard VO system. It is safe to say that this decoupled approach to implement RAVO, can be used as a strong point of reference in software development.