Space agencies have established steps, procedures and guidelines for the evolution of mature research CDRs into a sustaining production context, based on best practices from expert bodies, such as the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS). Such practices are being described and shared through coordination bodies such as WMO's Sustained, Coordinated Processing of Environmental Satellite Data for Climate Monitoring (SCOPE-CM) and the Working Group on Climate within the Committee on Earth Observing Satellites (WGClimate CEOS). These groups, as well as the WMO Coordination Group on Meteorological Satellites (CGMS) are working on a common framework, or architecture, that will better facilitate the use of global satellite observations for climate. This talk will describe the emerging Climate Satellite Architecture and how it will better enable the use of both research and operational satellite data for climate.