The developing research infrastructure landscape is diverse, with each infrastructure having particular requirements for data, metadata and protocols, therefore, it is difficult for anbsp;data archive to find a manageable solution to meet all the disparate demands. DASISH is working towards a reference architecture for infrastructures in the social sciences and humanities that recognizes the role data archives play and the challenges that they face. However, the heterogeneity and requirements of the communities that the infrastructures serve must also be maintained. We present our initial findings on the current state of the architectures of the five European social sciences and humanities infrastructures that are part of DASISH, and a vision for a referenc earchitecture, from the perspective of data archives.