Cloud computing has brought a new method of resource utilization and management. Nowadays some researchers are working on cloud-based instrumentation and measurement systems designated as Instrumentation and Measurement Clouds (IMCs). However, until now, no standard definition or detailed architecture with an implemented system for IMC has been presented. This paper adopts the philosophy of cloud computing and brings forward a relatively standard definition and a novel architecture for IMC. The architecture inherits many key features of cloud computing, such as service provision on demand, scalability and so on, for remote Instrumentation and Measurement (IM) resource utilization and management. In the architecture, instruments and sensors are virtualized into abstracted resources, and commonly used IM functions are wrapped into services. Users can use these resources and services on demand remotely. Platforms implemented under such architecture can reduce the investment for building IM systems greatly, enable remote sharing of IM resources, increase utilization efficiency of various resources, and facilitate processing and analyzing of Big Data from instruments and sensors. Practical systems with a typical application are implemented upon the architecture. Results demonstrate that the novel IMC architecture can provide a new effective and efficient framework for establishing IM systems.