Studying in a good B-school is an altogether different and enriching experience. I never thought that someday I would write something informational on the blog but here I am writing a real useful one for you all.
Well, it all started with a phone call from one of my friends from engineering fraternity. That was the time when I had just finished studying for Management Information Systems, one of the subjects in curriculum. Being from a core chemical and mechanical engineering background, I had no clue about this new "system" when I came to this college but the subject itself took the initiative and made me fan of itself.
So, I responded the call and the conversation proceeded as below:
Me: Hello !
Amit: Hey dude, wassup, where are you nowadays. I heard that you have joined a premier B-school, nice bro, reaching new heights !!!
Me: Oh thanks yaar, yes I have joined and learning a lot of new things here. I am really enjoying the course.
Amit: hahaha, what a joke, nobody enjoys studying, at least not you and I.
Me: No man, this is not the case, I am really learning new interesting things here, for example, today only I learnt about Systems Architecture in one of the class which is very intuitive and talks about how an information system in companies and big organisations work.
Amit: Systems Architecture ? What's this, have you gone there to study architecture. Can you elaborate a little.
Me: Yeah sure. Firstly you have to understand what is data and application. Application is a piece of software that runs a particular platform or operating system and delivers some specific functionality. For ex. MS word is an application that runs on Microsoft Windows Operating system.
But when you create a document using the word processor, then the document that you create is data.
I hope you can understand till this point.
Amit: Yeah I do but where is the architecture in this?
Me (laughing): Please hold on a little, i am coming to that also.
See, every company has lots of data that is to be used by employees at different locations around the country or even world. So, the challenge is how to store these data so that employees can use it in different locations and even make them available simultaneously to each of them.
This problem is solved by using the concept of System Architecture.
Amit: OK! I think I am understanding a bit. Please continue, it seems interesting.
Me: Thanks dear !
Lets start with single-tier architecture. A single-tier architecture is your own PC or laptop. Your data and application is separately stored in the PC. For ex. Microsoft word which is the application has file name *.doc
and stored in Application part but the data that you enter in it is stored in Data part as *.exe.
But when there are multiple users of same data then it becomes difficult to work with your PC unless you are connected to them via network or internet. This is single-tier architecture where only you can work with the data at a time and cannot be used by others.
Are you getting anything or not ?
Amit: Yeah, I am. You just continue.
Me: Fine. To solve this problem, we came to two-tier architecture. In this system, data is separated from the application and stored on a different platform. Each user has application on his own machine, the client machine, but the data that is to be used by all is stored in a common machine called the server.
Amit: Ohho, this is called server. In my whole life I didn't understand server. I thought it to be a rocket science to understand the server (laughing ).
Me (laughing): Rocket science !!! it's a bit too exaggerated,don't you think.
Now, these clients and server are connected together by a network called the Local Area Network where users can exchange and use the data.
Amit: Oye, don't tell me what is LAN. Don't you remember, we had lots of fun on it. Do you remember when I used to defeat you in Counter-Strike on LAN.
Me: Yeah, I know, I can't forget that. But you get it right. This system helps in maintaining good speed of processing by clients as none of the machines are loaded beyond their capacity with data. Its only the application logic that is stored there. Hence,can be used by many users at a time without any slow in processing.
Amit: Hmmmm.I got it. But LAN is useful only for small area like our campus or a building. You were talking about cities and countries. I don't think it would work there.
Me: Wow, I didn't realize that your IQ is improved.(smiling).
Yes you are right. So we moved to WAN but that also encountered many problems. It led to higher costs, slow speed and whenever there was any change in the logic of applications, it would had to be distributed quickly to all far flung machines. So, we moved to Three-tier architecture.
Amit: Oops!!! How many more are there man. It's kind of evolution.
Me: Yeah you are right. It is evolution of system architecture.
Now the application is split into two parts.
One part handles the user interface only, that is client.
The other part
Well, it all started with a phone call from one of my friends from engineering fraternity. That was the time when I had just finished studying for Management Information Systems, one of the subjects in curriculum. Being from a core chemical and mechanical engineering background, I had no clue about this new "system" when I came to this college but the subject itself took the initiative and made me fan of itself.
So, I responded the call and the conversation proceeded as below:
Me: Hello !
Amit: Hey dude, wassup, where are you nowadays. I heard that you have joined a premier B-school, nice bro, reaching new heights !!!
Me: Oh thanks yaar, yes I have joined and learning a lot of new things here. I am really enjoying the course.
Amit: hahaha, what a joke, nobody enjoys studying, at least not you and I.
Me: No man, this is not the case, I am really learning new interesting things here, for example, today only I learnt about Systems Architecture in one of the class which is very intuitive and talks about how an information system in companies and big organisations work.
Amit: Systems Architecture ? What's this, have you gone there to study architecture. Can you elaborate a little.
Me: Yeah sure. Firstly you have to understand what is data and application. Application is a piece of software that runs a particular platform or operating system and delivers some specific functionality. For ex. MS word is an application that runs on Microsoft Windows Operating system.
But when you create a document using the word processor, then the document that you create is data.
I hope you can understand till this point.
Amit: Yeah I do but where is the architecture in this?
Me (laughing): Please hold on a little, i am coming to that also.
See, every company has lots of data that is to be used by employees at different locations around the country or even world. So, the challenge is how to store these data so that employees can use it in different locations and even make them available simultaneously to each of them.
This problem is solved by using the concept of System Architecture.
Amit: OK! I think I am understanding a bit. Please continue, it seems interesting.
Me: Thanks dear !
Lets start with single-tier architecture. A single-tier architecture is your own PC or laptop. Your data and application is separately stored in the PC. For ex. Microsoft word which is the application has file name *.doc
and stored in Application part but the data that you enter in it is stored in Data part as *.exe.
But when there are multiple users of same data then it becomes difficult to work with your PC unless you are connected to them via network or internet. This is single-tier architecture where only you can work with the data at a time and cannot be used by others.
Are you getting anything or not ?
Amit: Yeah, I am. You just continue.
Me: Fine. To solve this problem, we came to two-tier architecture. In this system, data is separated from the application and stored on a different platform. Each user has application on his own machine, the client machine, but the data that is to be used by all is stored in a common machine called the server.
Amit: Ohho, this is called server. In my whole life I didn't understand server. I thought it to be a rocket science to understand the server (laughing ).
Me (laughing): Rocket science !!! it's a bit too exaggerated,don't you think.
Now, these clients and server are connected together by a network called the Local Area Network where users can exchange and use the data.
Amit: Oye, don't tell me what is LAN. Don't you remember, we had lots of fun on it. Do you remember when I used to defeat you in Counter-Strike on LAN.
Me: Yeah, I know, I can't forget that. But you get it right. This system helps in maintaining good speed of processing by clients as none of the machines are loaded beyond their capacity with data. Its only the application logic that is stored there. Hence,can be used by many users at a time without any slow in processing.
Amit: Hmmmm.I got it. But LAN is useful only for small area like our campus or a building. You were talking about cities and countries. I don't think it would work there.
Me: Wow, I didn't realize that your IQ is improved.(smiling).
Yes you are right. So we moved to WAN but that also encountered many problems. It led to higher costs, slow speed and whenever there was any change in the logic of applications, it would had to be distributed quickly to all far flung machines. So, we moved to Three-tier architecture.
Amit: Oops!!! How many more are there man. It's kind of evolution.
Me: Yeah you are right. It is evolution of system architecture.
Now the application is split into two parts.
One part handles the user interface only, that is client.
The other part
