What is a Reference Architecture?

A reference architecture offers IT best practices in an easy-to-understand format that guides the implementation of complex technology solutions.

Reference architecture definition

A reference architecture comprises a document or set of documents which provide recommended structures and integrations of IT products and services to form a solution. The reference architecture embodies accepted industry best practices, typically suggesting the optimal delivery method for specific technologies.

Why reference architectures?

Reference architectures help project managers, software developers, enterprise architects, and IT managers to collaborate and communicate effectively about an implementation project.  A reference architecture anticipates — and answers — the most common questions that arise.  As a result, they help teams avoid errors and delays that may occur without the use of a tested set of best practices and solution approaches.

HPE reference architectures

HPE publishes an extensive collection of Reference Architectures that reduce the complexities of planning, designing, and implementing infrastructure across many different workloads and infrastructure platforms. Based on decades of HPE technical experience, our Reference Architectures give you a repeatable, best practices reference with fully tested, validated workload architectures. Speed deployment time with less risk with an optimised configuration.