Having the right tool in place for business needs is paramount. Well designed software based solutions will help in time savings, reduced workloads and resources, provide better consistency and accuracy.
This in turn will facilitate better services internally and that quality and service will be pasted on to clients.
Most software you find in off the shelf retail packages are single tier, meaning
they do not separate any logic and process from the application and therefore the
machine on which it resides and runs. This may be fine for simple application needs
for a single user should that the application will only be used by that one person.
A common sample of a single tier application would be say your email application
such as Microsoft Outlook or a simple accounting application such as Intuit QuickBooks.
Single Tier applications need not only be typical applications like Microsoft Outlook.
They can be specialized applications such as media programs like a Flash Movie that
displays animation and may allow user interactions like clicking on buttons or providing
data collection fields. The important things to remember is that it is typically
self-contained and may optionally have a source from which to read or store data
from such as a database or file system.
Image 1 – Typical Single Tier Structure
Technology has reached a point where shared information and unification of information
from various sources has become more prevalent. Meaning, with all the diverse systems
in place today that are in use to handle specific set of purposes and information
being spread over these systems with most often duplicate or similar data and along
with the sheer quantity and size of these separate systems - demands we gather and
redistribute processes and data in such as way that information is inputted once
and is shared to avoid duplication of efforts, increase consistency and many times
improves processing as data is queried once as opposed to many time per system and
relevancy as more details can be associated with existing data. Of course the there
are many other reasons why you would want to implement Multi Tier based solutions
beyond having a hardware need such as processing power or connectivity for shared
resources, that could possibly be for security, limit that exposure of code (implementation)
or for future expansion of requirements without breaking or requiring changes to
existing software solutions.
Software which is built with flexibility, expandability and the many other feature
benefits already mentioned prior typically can be divided in a few categories or
Layers. Namely, we have the Presentation Layer, Business / Logic Layer, Data Access
Layer, and Persistence being your actual source such as a database. The two middle
layers can often combined in application scenarios like a website that is database
driven. The below Image 2 illustrates these layers and notes its basic purpose.
Image 2 – Typical Multi Tier Structure
Companies implementing Multi Tier approaches to their software solutions are reaping
the benefits and are poised for smoother grow transition. The above mentioned Tiers
are a matter of design given the current and future needs of the business. Prior
to commencing any engagement that will involve Single or Multi Tier solutions would
be to consult with experts who can properly assess the current environment - being
existing software, hardware, processes and policies and work with you to begin to
design a suitable solution.
If you have questions, concerns or would like to know how to get started,