I was traveling in a train to my ancestral home this summer after completing my first year at VGSOM, IIT kharagpur.Surprisingly,I met one of my very close old friend inside the train compartment in which i was traveling.It was a tiresome re-union after many years. We had discussions on various aspects of our daily life so since i am a student now a days, it was quiet obvious that my subjects would be part of that discussion.
I am sharing an extract of that discussion which was on a very interesting topic known as "System Architecture".Here it goes -
I am sharing an extract of that discussion which was on a very interesting topic known as "System Architecture".Here it goes -
Amit: Nikhil, as you know, I am very enthusiastic about
computers. I keep a close watch on recent technological innovations. A couple
of days ago; I came across a very interesting jargon while traversing an
article in an IT journal. The article was on technological innovations that
have led to efficient multitasking, multiprocessing and data management. The
jargon was –“SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE”, can you give me some information about this
term as I wasn’t able to understand this concept?
Me: Amit, System architecture is a very innovative concept
that works on a principle which states that data must be logically distinct from the applications. There are
many types of integrated systems that were developed on this concept in due course
of time. The first one was single –tier integrated system. It separated the data
from the applications even if they were on the same physical hardware so that
they could be processed separately. This helped in improving the CPU
utilization and processing time. Then came the two-tier architecture which is
popularly known as Client-Server architecture these days. In this model, the
data was kept on the server while the applications were kept on the clients. The
client and server were connected through the LAN with TCP/IP protocol.
Amit: So can you brief me about certain advantages that this
client-server architecture offers?
Me: Yes of course, one of the biggest advantages of
client-server architecture is that it provides a convenient graphic user
interface and also doesn’t place processing burden on the server when hundreds
of users are connected to the system. There are certain disadvantages also like
high bandwidth is required which slows down the application and regular maintenance
of distributed software has to be done.
Amit : So has anything being done to counter these short comings
?
Me : Yes, there are multi-tier architectures available
where the business logic is central and there are dedicated web servers to manage
applications along with data servers. The clients act just like a web browser
thus there is no need for specialist software at each end. Further, as big organizations
are embracing IT, there are many new complex muti-tier systems coming into
existence. Systems like ERP have fully automated the business scenario and are
able to integrate all the functional areas together. For any special
requirements such as business intelligence, data mining etc., there are special
data warehouse servers that can be easily integrated with the ERP systems to
achieve the desired operation.
Amit : Thanks a lot Nikhil for explaining me about this innovative concept. Now i can understand how all this huge data is processed and how all these web applications interact.
Amit : Thanks a lot Nikhil for explaining me about this innovative concept. Now i can understand how all this huge data is processed and how all these web applications interact.
