Trends in Software Architecture Designs: Evolution and Current State

Software architecture combines architectural style and quality attributes with the high-level structure of software system abstraction through composition and breakdown. In addition to meeting the system's primary functionality and performance needs, a software architectural design must also meet non-functional requirements including availability, scalability, portability, and dependability. The set of components, their relationships, how they interact, and how each component is deployed must all be described in a software architecture. There are numerous approaches to characterizing software architecture, including object-oriented modeling with UML (Unified Modeling Language), the Architecture View Model (4+1 view model), and ADL (Architecture Description Language). With an emphasis on microservices, serverless architecture, event-driven architecture, domain-driven design, cloud-native applications, zero trust security, and artificial intelligence integration, this paper reviews the latest developments in software architectural concepts, comparing their trends and contributions to modern computing. This paper reviews the evolution and current trends in software architecture designs from 2016 to 2024. It highlights key shifts, emerging paradigms, and factors influencing architectural decisions. The study is based on a systematic desktop review of existing literature, focusing on industry and academic contributions. Findings indicate a shift towards cloud-native architectures, microservices, event-driven models, and AI-enhanced frameworks. The paper synthesizes these trends and discusses their implications for future software development.