Reference architecture

A reference architecture provides a proven template solution for an architecture for a particular domain.

For example, J2EE, the Java 2 Enterprise Edition architecture is a layered reference architecture which provides a template solution for many enterprise systems. The reference architecture addresses problems commonly encoutered for enterprise systems including scaleability, reliability and security.

There may be multiple frameworks wihin which a system developed within a reference architecture can be deployed. Examples of J2EE framework open source application servers like JBoss, Geronimo and Open EJB as well as vendor solutions like IBM Websphere, BEA Web Logic and Oracle Application Server.