When discussing implications for the JUCE framework and tools, I suggested it might be ideal if multiple interested parties could collaborate to devise some kind of standard architecture for networked DAW/plug-in systems. This would necessarily include standardizing aspects of the network communication protocol (to facilitate inter-operability of different systems), but it would be essential that the protocol remain extensible, for maximum flexibility into the future.
We already know how to design plug-ins. A standardization effort would be directed primarily at questions of server-side architecture and, more broadly, the architecture of distributed, heterogeneous, client-server DAW/studio systems. Some of the issues involved are discussed on the implications for DAWs and implications for JUCE pages.
I certainly don't have all the answers; I don't even know all the questions. The best I can hope for is to start the conversation.