Blog Question for Week 8

'In your own words explain what are the advantages and disadvantages of 3-Tier Architecture in Web development?'


The 3-Tier Architecture application creates a logical division between the Presentation Layer, Business Logic Layer and the Database Layer.

The advantages of 3-Tier Architecture in Web development are:

1. Improved scalability- The application servers can be installed on several machines.
2. Better Re-use- The same logic can be started from several clients or applications.
3. Improved Data Integrity- As all the updates go through the middle tier, the middle tier can make sure that only data that is valid is allowed to be updated in the database and the threat of a rogue client application corrupting data is taken away.
4. Improved Security- As the security can be applied at multiple levels not just the database.
5. Reduced Distribution- As changes to business logic only require to be updated on the application servers and do not require to be spread to all clients.
6. Improved Availability.
7. Hidden Database structure.

The disadvantages of 3-Tier Architecture in web development are:

1. Increased Complexity/Effort- The 3-Tier Architecture application is more difficult to build and maintain compare to a 2-Tier application.
2. Further processing on the web server.
3. Interaction with the WMS is not direct.

References:

Prons and Cons of 3-Tier Architecture

http://www.dotnetfunda.com/articles/article71.aspx [Viewed: 23/11/08]

http://moodle.bcu.ac.uk/tid/file.php/340/Karims_Seminar/Three_Tier_Architecture_Model_answer_.doc [Viewed: 23/11/08]

Advantages and Disadvantages of of 3-Tier Architecture

http://www.dotnetspider.com/forum/ViewForum.aspx?ForumId=32149 [Viewed: 23/11/08]