System Architecture

System Architecture

Here is a conversation which I had with my friend and a colleague from my ex-company.

Me : Hi Abhi

Abhi  : Hi Rohit. How are you? How was your first week in the IIT?

Me: Great but very busy.

Abhi: How do you find MBA?

Me: It is very interesting and different from what I thought for eg. We have a subject here called Business Information Systems in which today I learnt about System Architectures.

Abhi: Is it something related to IT?

Me: Yes it is a part of information systems. It’s about the Server-Client stuff that we have in our office

Abhi: Will you please explain me? I would like to know something different from piping, valves, PLC, etc.

Me: Sure, why not?

Me: System Architecture is a way in which the data stored in and the applications which we use to process the data are connected to each other. For example, the   network through which our office computers are connected to each other and to the server, is a kind of system architecture.

Abhi: Sounds interesting, please go on.

Me: What I understood in the lecture is that there are types of architecture and are differentiated based on the complexity of networking involved. These different architectures are called as Single Tier Architecture, Two Tier Architecture, Three Tier Architecture and Multi-Tier Architecture. I will start with the first type i.e. Single Tier. If all the data related to, say our project is on your computer and the applications like MSWord or your PLC design software are also on your computer, then such system will be called as the Single Tier System.

Abhi: It will be difficult to work like that, as you know we need to share all our project related data to engineers working in various disciplines.

Me: Exactly, that is where a database server comes into picture. You have your instrumentation related softwares on your computer and a mechanical engineer has design sotwares on his computer. Thus a common database is now available for all and at the same time everyone has his own applications on his computer. This is called as Two-Tier System Architecture.

Abhi: Ohh..so is this the way in which our office computers work?

Me: Not exactly because some of the applications that we use are on application server, for example what we call in our office as ERP server is actually an application server. Now it might have become clear to you that that how all the things related to proposals, engineering, projects, purchase,  sales and marketing, finance, etc. are managed so efficiently in our company. All these things are managed from the database server and the ERP application server. This is called as Three Tier System Architecture.

Abhi: What about the company web portals that we use?

Me: That comes under the Multi-tier System Architecture and this is where the internet comes into picture and our company web portals is a good example of that. A web browser is added to the three tier architecture and it becomes a multi-tier architecture. Many applications like e-mail server, time sheet, IFS HR Module are available for employees on web portals. Here you might have noted that ERP application is not available for employees on web portals as it carries a lot of projects related confidential information in it.

Abhi: All this is really interesting, I always had a curiosity to know how these things really work.