System Architecture
Mr. Shah hurried towards the boardroom well aware that he was late for the meeting that was to decide what “system architecture” is best suited for his organisation. Mr. Shah’s understanding of system architecture was that it was: A representation of a system in which there is a mapping of functionality onto hardware and software components, a mapping of the software architecture onto the hardware architecture, and human interaction with these components.
Mr. Shah hurried towards the boardroom well aware that he was late for the meeting that was to decide what “system architecture” is best suited for his organisation. Mr. Shah’s understanding of system architecture was that it was: A representation of a system in which there is a mapping of functionality onto hardware and software components, a mapping of the software architecture onto the hardware architecture, and human interaction with these components.
Mr. Shah’s company, a growing retail chain with stores spread-over in 5 major cities of the country, had long time back computerized their whole system. But understanding the growing need of the business and thereby the evolving market dynamism, required for a more complex and better IT implementation.
As he entered the room he found Mr. Archie, his business partner and also a technology expert, anxiously awaiting his arrival.
Mr. Archie: “Hey, Shah, congratulation our Mumbai store has recorded highest sale this season.”
Mr. Shah: “Congratulation to u too, but I’m afraid this might not come always true in the long run.”
Mr. Archie: “Hmm....I agree, so long we have been going well with our two-tier client server architecture whereby our data server and application server were separate, this made business logic for us.”
Mr. Archie: “Our application server was connected to the data server using TCP/IP and we have been using MySQL as the server software with GUI. This made presentation logic for our business.”
Mr. Shah: “That is very true. And when we opened new stores in other cities we just connected each application server with data server via internet. Although we have issues like bandwidth requirements, maintenances and other WAN related problem, the convenient graphics user interface does not place processing burden on server machine even when we have hundreds of users.”
Mr. Shah: “But Archie, looking ahead, my major concern is that we are a growing firm and the market is also undergoing revolutionary changes. Under these conditions, we need to put in place a system which costs us less yet it should make sense to our business.”
Mr. Archie: “Exactly, and that’s why i have called you here to discuss, three-tier architecture, multi-tier architecture and the role of an ERP in our business.”
Mr. Shah: “Ok, but can you be more specific, please.”
Mr. Archie: “Oh yes. Unlike the two-tier architecture, in three-tier architecture the application is partitioned. What i mean is, the business logic (Data and business critical application) is kept centrally so that changes is done in one location and the presentation (user interface application) is kept locally thereby reducing the data transfer over the network. And please keep in mind whenever i speak of network hereafter, i always mean the internet.”
Mr. Shah: “Ok.”
Mr. Archie: “Now the only thing that differentiates 3-tier with multi-tier architecture is that even the client location application software is located centrally along with data and other business critical application and these can be accessed by the client with the help of web-browser. And although this is inexpensive there is no need for specialist software at the client end, the business application should be web enabled and security software should be in place to make the network secure.”
Mr. Shah: “So, depending upon the business needs we can go for various consolidations present within this multi-tier architecture.”
Mr. Archie: “absolutely.”
Mr. Shah: “Is it true that within 2-tier architecture, both the data and the application client side can further be divided depending upon the requirements on both the side. And these applications can be from different vendors and can be based on different technology platforms like Oracle, Java or C++.”
Mr. Archie: “You are very true, partner.”
Mr. Shah: “But, the point that really confuses is the difference between an RDBMS and ERP.”
Mr. Archie: “In RDBMS, the corporate database is located centrally along with other servers and the application client machines are located locally. This helps in no duplication and inconsistency of data across locations and is also easier to manage.”
Mr. Shah: “Ok.”
Mr. Archie: “In ERP, the various functional module is integrated and a identical software across the client side just helps in connecting for faster processing and hence for better performance.”
Mr. Shah: “But how do we handle special requirements.”
Mr. Archie: “In that case we can set up a special data server which can only be accessed by a special data/ERP client. And to protect our rest of the data from hackers, we can use firewalls in strategic locations.”
Mr. Shah: “How do we develop a good application system?”
Mr. Archie: “We have Oracle, SQL, MySQL and ZOHO! To design a database and the development can be based on relational model. For application design and developments we have Java/C++, visual basic, Ruby-on-Rails and ZOHO!”
Mr. Shah: “Good, now since we are quite clear on these terms, we better get started.”
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