Software/System Architectures Overview

Software/System Architectures (Enterprise-Level)

• Software/system architecture defines the design decisions of a system's structure and behavior.
• It helps stakeholders understand how the system will meet essential qualities like modifiability, availability, and security.
• Enterprise-level architecture caters to the unique needs of large-scale systems, such as high volumes of concurrent users.

Example of Enterprise-Level vs Non-Enterprise-Level Architecture

• Microsoft Office and Office 365, while similar functionally, differ significantly in architecture.
• Office 365 is enterprise-level software, supporting 300+ million monthly active users.
• The other is personal productivity software.

Benefits of Using a Software/System Architecture

• Predefines core functionalities and behavior.
• Enhances agility by reducing technical debt.
• Identifies and fixes potential issues early.
• Tailors to specific requirements for consistent quality.
• Enables creation of better, reusable, and maintainable code.
• Boosts overall productivity.

Monolithic Architecture

• A single unit of application with all functionalities woven together.
• Pros: Simplicity, suitable for small-scale applications without complex distributed systems.
• Cons: High complexity that hinders modifications, potential to unintentionally impact various system parts when making changes; not scalable; whole application needs to be scaled.

N-Tier Architecture

• Designed in layers (tiers) with each having a specific responsibility; 3-Tier (Frontend, Backend, Database) is a typical example.
• Pros: Separation of concerns, reusability, maintainability, testability, encapsulation, and flexibility.
• Cons: Performance overhead, increased complexity and rigidity.

Microservices Architecture

• Breaks the application into small, independent, and modular components (microservices).
• Each handles specific functionality, and communicates via API.
• Pros: Scalability, flexibility, fault tolerance, easier maintenance, faster development and deployment.
• Cons: Increased complexity, communication overhead, data consistency issues, higher deployment management efforts, and security risks.

Event-Driven Architecture (EDA)

• Components communicate by producing and consuming events.
• Events represent meaningful occurrences and trigger actions.
• Pros: Scalability, loose coupling, asynchronous processing, fault tolerance, and easier integration.
• Cons: Increased complexity, debugging/troubleshooting challenges, event ordering problems, data consistency issues, messaging overhead, and monitoring, testing, and validation challenges.

Asynchronous vs Synchronous

• Synchronous: Real-time interactions like video calls, SQL queries, or getting content from servers like Apache.
• Asynchronous: Processes like sending emails, messages, or retrieving content from servers like NGINX that don't require immediate responses.

Model-View-Controller (MVC)

• Separates application logic into three distinct layers: Model (data), View (user interface), and Controller (orchestrates Model and View, handles user input).
• MVC can be applied to various architectures.

Client-Server Architecture

• Clients interact with a central server.
• Pros: Simplicity, centralized management.
• Cons: Single point of failure, limited scaling.
• Relational databases are often not easily horizontally scalable.

Peer-to-Peer Architecture

• A network of peers (both server and client roles).
• Peers self-organize and can join/leave the network.
• Pros: Fault tolerance, scalability.
• Cons: Management/coordination challenges, performance variability, security risks.

Serverless Computing

• An approach where the provider manages the underlying infrastructure.

Which Architecture is Better?

• No single "better" architecture. Choice depends on the specific requirements.
• Factors include team expertise, complexity of the problem domain, performance needs, security concerns, and costs (licenses, training, etc.).

Factors to Consider When Selecting a Software/System Architecture

• Team Expertise: Relevant experience can determine the optimal choice.
• Problem Domain Complexity: The solution needs to be appropriate for the specific problem to be solved.
• Performance Requirements/Scalability: Scalability is a significant factor with high user volumes.
• Security and Compliance: Some architectures might have more security concerns, and the solution needs to be appropriate for business requirements.
• Costs: The operational costs can vary depending on the selected architecture.
• Project Requirements The solution must meet the specific project needs.

Explore the fundamentals of software and system architecture, specifically focused on enterprise-level designs. This quiz covers the differences between enterprise-level and non-enterprise-level architectures, alongside the benefits of adopting a structured architectural approach in large-scale systems.