Softminders

> The N-Tiers Model vs Client/Server ?

 

It lasted almost ten years to finally come back to the initial meaning of the Client Server Architecture. When Client/Server paradigm upcame in the IT world as a new architecture concept, it actually was an application even a generalization of the well known "producer/consumer" schema. Original Client/Server model , as its ancestor producer consummer, did not put any limitation on the number of collaboration levels the model apply to. Precisely it certainly did not limit designer to have one producer (generally a big data server) and one consumer (the famous "fat" client).

This strcutureunderlaid the worst information system ever made with fat clients, fat servers, and huge bandwith consumption and bottom line poor performance and high cost of ownership.

Actually this was a missed meeting with the distributed architecture better known today as n-tiered or multi-tiered architecture. In tne meantime, technology, business requirements and mainly culture have changed to finally converge on these new paradigm for building information system, more rapdily, more flexible, should we say more changeable, closer to the customer, and more affordable.

So that is ok, "Client-Server" should have never been what it became, that is an old story now, there are plenty of new exciting stuffs to do. Let's get back to work!

 

> "The N-Tiers"

Actually the additional tiers (4th and greater) are sort of inserted between the Client and the Third (Data) tier of a 3 tier model. A typical n-tiered architecture could look like:

 

Client Tier	Style Sheet, Skins
	GUI - HTML
	Presentation Logic (HTML, Jscript page generation)
Middle Tier	Business Services
	Common Facility Services
	Data Business Objects
Third Tier	Persistent Object Layer
	Data Access (ADO.Net, ODBC, LDAP Api, XML Library.)
	Data Storage Layer (Relational Database, XML Document, Legacy Database, LDAP, Files .)

 

>How feasible an N-tiers architecture is?

There are available suitable tools and technology to build distributed architecture for many years, however those technologies such CORBA, DCOM , RPC, .. were everything but easy to use and affordable.

Since the first steps of distributed computing the amazing growth of the internet made the idea of Net-Centric information system a strategic axis for software companies and their customers as well, and affordable in all meanings of the word, techniques and tools, are now ready. The Microsoft .Net platform is one of the most important new technologies that recently came up and make developing and operating N-tiers distributed architecture feasible because affordable and quite easy.

Softminders is strongly involved in designing, programming and operating information system founded on the N-tier model.

 

> What are the Key Business Benefits of N-Tiered Architectures ? 

• Lower Total Cost of Ownership.
• Better capability to follow a change management Policy or a business process re-engineering policy.
• Information system can even become a Tool for business growth.

Why that? - Let's talk about it: Contact-us

 

>Fakes 3-tiers Architecture

Even if the entire software industry has been focusing on tools and technology to facilitate n-tiered architecture, there are still a some reluctant IT people, manager, programmers. There is probably no reasonable way to convince those people, there are fewer and fewer. On the other hand there are many situations where software applications designers and developpers think that they are doing n-tiers system, this is particulary the case for PhP projects and / or Strored procedure base projects.

• Is an application using ASP.Net , a Relational Database with aBusiness Tier programed as Stored Procedure a N-Tier application? - Actually not.
• Are any ASP.Net application, even using the "Code behind" model, a n-tiers architectures? - Generally they are not.
• Is a Php / Mysql a 3-tier application? - Most of case it is not.
• Genererally speaking, does an application using a Database, one or more Web Server and a Thin Client, realize a n-tiered architecture? - Most of case they do not.

Thin Client & Multi-Tiered Architecture > 

 

If you are interested in getting socftminders answers and explanations to these questions, please contact-us, we will be happy to share our ideas with you.