For this post I started pulling together my own set of links to the whitepapers and documents I consider essential reading for any architect working in the Salesforce space. In doing so I came across the link below, where salesforce.com have already done a great job of this – bookmark this page now!
Salesforce Architect Core Resources
The Force.com Multitenant Architecture and Record Access under the hood are both excellent resources, the content of both should be fully understood by architects taking a lead role on Salesforce projects of any size.
The one missing link from the referenced page is to the Integration patterns document
Don’t forget to check out the Advanced Apex Programming book by Dan Appleman also, there is some great content in this title highly relevant to architects not just Apex coders.