What is Software Architecture?
Software architecture refers to the fundamental structures of a software system and the discipline of creating such structures and systems. Each structure comprises software elements, their externally visible properties, and the relationships among them.
It is concerned with making high-level design choices and defining the overall blueprint of the system. These choices impact the system's performance, maintainability, scalability, and security.
Here's a visual representation of how architecture forms the backbone:
Key Architectural Patterns
Architectural patterns are reusable solutions to common problems in software architecture. They help developers and architects communicate and structure their systems more effectively.
- Monolithic Architecture: A traditional, single-tiered software application where all components are tightly coupled and run together as one service.
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Microservices Architecture: An application is broken down into a collection of small, independent services, each running in its own process and communicating with other services.
A visual of microservices communication:
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Layered (N-Tier) Architecture: The system is divided into logical layers, such as Presentation, Business Logic, and Data Access, to separate concerns.
An example of a layered architecture:
- Event-Driven Architecture: Components are decoupled and communicate through events. A central message queue or broker facilitates this communication.
- Client-Server Architecture: A distributed application structure that partitions tasks or workloads between the providers of a resource or service (servers) and service requesters (clients).
Architectural Principles
Good software architecture is guided by several key principles:
- Separation of Concerns: Dividing a computer program into distinct sections, such that each section addresses a separate concern.
- Loose Coupling: Components are independent and have minimal dependencies on each other.
- High Cohesion: The elements within a module or component belong together and work to achieve a single, well-defined purpose.
- Scalability: The ability of the system to handle a growing amount of work by adding resources.
- Maintainability: The ease with which a system can be modified, corrected, or enhanced.
Example: Simple Microservices Diagram
This is a conceptual diagram of a simple microservices architecture.