Have you seen the design of a skyscraper? It is a space where you can find high-level functioning and brilliance together. Software architectural patterns are more or less pretty much the same. Now, there are times when you will find certain software applications smooth and reliable, while others aren’t even close or they end up crashing on a frequent basis, especially under heavy use. Have you ever wondered why this happens? The secret of success lies in the architectural pattern.
So what are these software architectural patterns? How are they beneficial? How many types are available, and more? You will address this in the following post. To cut a long story short, software architecture patterns are one of the core aspects of any software development process. Here, these patterns are meant to assist developers in creating systems that are highly efficient, scalable, secure, and easy to maintain.
Generally, software architectural development - architectural requirement analysis, architectural design, architectural documentation, as well as architectural evaluation- architects lay out a system architecture diagram.
So What is Software Architecture?
Software architecture is basically the strongest foundation, or should I say, a formation of core ideas, how they will be in terms of characteristics, how they will respond with the current environment, and of course, the incorporation of numerous design principles. The pattern is usually a set of designs where numerous problems are addressed irrespective of development contexts. Now, the architectural pattern isn’t a refined image; it is a rough one or a blueprint, which means this is not an actual architecture. So what is it for? Well, here you are bound to get a better perspective of software architecture’s elements. It may be quite interesting to you to know that these patterns are often known as “strictly described and commonly utilized”.
Some of the common examples of architectural patterns include:
- Microservices
- Domain-driven design components, and presentation-abstraction-control
- MVC pattern
- MVVM,
- Service requester/ consumer
- Microkernel
- N-tier
No wonder it is rightly said that software architecture patterns play a pivotal role in the overall success of digital projects. And with the seamless increase in the global market, it is always advisable to consider exemplary architecture to meet all kinds of industry requirements. So overall, software architecture is more like a blueprint where the overall structure is established, featuring system components as well as connections.
Now, many of you have a misconception that software architecture patterns and design patterns are the same, which is certainly not the case. Software pattern usually defines the high-level structure, and here outlining all the fundamental components is possible; this even includes all the interactions. The entire layout is taken care of here. Design pattern, on the other hand, can usually be considered as a smaller-scale solution considered to aid a recurring design problem within a software component as well as module. Unlike software architecture patterns, design patterns are considered to meet specific design challenges, such as offering standardised solutions that result in enhanced code reusability, readability, as well as easy maintenance.
Software Architecture Patterns - The Why part
So I guess by now you do understand the significance of a good software architecture. Well, below I would like to mention certain core benefits of why there is a need for investing in a good software architecture.
Offers a Solid Foundation
There are times when software development projects feature more and more cruft, which creates issues among developers in completely understanding systems as well as taking care of shareholder needs. With architecture patterns, it is feasible for developers to gain a better perspective. This is how scalable the platform needs to be, which quality attributes, as well as functions, users are willing to have. And above all, these architecture patterns can assist in enhancing performance, enabling risk management and cost mitigation, and avoiding code deception.
Cost Savings
The software architecture pattern assists an organization in successfully analyzing its current IT and identifying different areas where changes can result in high-end cost savings. Here you are bound to find out about multiple database systems that can be changed in the meantime. This also means only one product is used, reducing software as well as support costs.
Here, you get an absolute basis for reuse; the process can successfully support both the use as well as creation of reusable assets. This is the core reason for the absolute reduction in the overall cost of the system and enhancement in terms of quality.
Code Maintenance
Many of you have this misconception that completing the software is the final step of the lifecycle. Well, it’s certainly not! There is way more than that; it is easy to maintain and enhance. Good architecture is the sole reason why developers are able to find bugs and anomalies in a more easy manner and, of course, this does result in the promotion of faster changes within the IT system.
Types of Software Architecture Patterns
Layered Architecture Pattern
The first and foremost kind of software architecture pattern is layered or N-tier architecture. Here, the app is successfully segmented among different kinds of layers, which are capable enough to perform a wide range of functions. So what exactly are these layers?
- Presentation Layers featuring a user interface
- Business logic layer processing logic
- Data Layer is mainly considered to conduct interaction with the databases
In addition to these, you may also come across a service layer or other layers considered for caching. The layered architecture needs to be considered when you want each layer to have an absolute conversation with the immediate layer. This definitely reduces the overall chances of code dependency and enhances code stability to a great extent.
Benefits:
- Highly focused on specific functions
- Easy to maintain since layers are decoupled
- Layers can be used among multiple applications
- Possible to scale each layer independently
Microservices Architecture
The next interesting and important software architecture pattern to consider is a microservices architecture. It may be quite interesting to you to know that this particular type has been considered as the most viable alternative, especially to monolithic-based applications as well as service-oriented architecture. Here, components are deployed mainly in the form of separate units with the help of a more effective and streamlined delivery pipeline. As a result, you are bound to receive enhanced scalability as well as a high degree of decoupling within the developed application.
How are these components usually accessed, you may ask? It is with the help of a remote access protocol. In simple words, the same components are possible to separate, develop, deploy, and test. One of the common examples of microservice architecture to take note of is Netflix.
Benefits:
- Services can be scaled independently
- Possible to choose different technologies for different services
- Failure in service won’t harm or affect the entire system
- Teams can work on an independent basis
- It is easy to manage a smaller codebase
Master-slave Architecture
Often known as the primary-secondary pattern, this Master-Slave architecture is mainly considered for successfully managing as well as organizing more and more kinds of complex systems where tasks are successfully divided among different processors as well as nodes. Here, the master component can be considered as the controller or the central node, which is highly responsible for coordinating as well as managing overall system operations. Here, everything is controlled and tasks are successfully delegated to slave components, often known as workers, nodes, and clients.
No wonder this particular architecture pattern is highly adopted among different domains, featuring distributed systems, database management systems, as well as network protocols.
Benefits:
- Tasks are distributed among masters and slaves, leading to seamless management of heavy loads.
- In case one slave fails, the master gets to reassign tasks to other slaves, making sure the operation keeps on going.
- New slaves can be added to the system to seamlessly take care of the increased workload, and here you don’t need to conduct any kind of major changes to the current architecture.
- Multiple slaves can work on multiple paths, so faster to market.
- System design is pretty much simplified due to the separation of control and execution.
Event-driven Software Architecture Pattern
The next interesting software architecture pattern to take into account is Event-driven pattern. This one usually breaks tasks into producers and consumers, one which produces events and the latter one which consumes those events with the help of RabbitMQ or Apache Kafka.
As the name implies, the flow of the system is usually driven by events. Here, components are bound to communicate by producing and consuming events, enabling them to act pretty independently and asynchronously. If you want the system to turn out to be highly flexible, scalable, and responsive to real-time events, then this is it!
One of the best examples of event-driven architecture is an e-commerce site. It is possible to react to different sources at a time of high demand, avoiding any crash of apps or any over-provisioning of resources.
Benefits:
- Possible to operate independently and asynchronously
- Decoupling components makes it easy to handle high loads
- Offers real-time processing and feedback
- Failure in one component won’t affect others
- Used in financial applications, messaging systems and IoT-based applications.
MicroKernel Architecture Pattern
This architecture pattern mainly features two types of components - one is the core system and the other one is different kinds of plugin modules. On one hand, the core system is meant to work on minimal functionality just to keep operations smooth and plug-in modules are independent components featuring specialized processing.
Think of the core system as general business logic, and plug-in modules are meant to enhance the core system to produce additional business capabilities.
So developers can download different application packages and easily add extra essential features which do fit the request. This type of architecture is used among apps having a clear segmentation among basic routines and higher-order rules.
Serverless Architecture
The next software architecture pattern to pick is serverless architecture. It is possible for developers to create as well as execute apps using serverless architecture. It is one of the most intimidating cloud computing design styles where you no longer have to worry about maintaining the supporting infrastructure. From server administration, scaling, and resource allocation, all these aspects are successfully handled by cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. All you need to focus on is writing code and designing functions which can successfully run in response to events instead of deploying and maintaining servers constantly.
Model-View-Controller Pattern
The next software architecture pattern to consider is the model-view-controller pattern. This architectural design focuses highly on separating an application into mainly three interconnected components, including model, view and controller. The separation assists in organising code by decoupling the business logic, user interface and user input handling. Now you know why software featuring model-view-controller patterns is highly known for extreme modularity, maintainability and scalability.
Model - Represents core data and business logic of the developed app and mainly considered for retrieving, storing and processing data. The model even updates the view in case the data changes.
View - The user interface component is meant to highlight the data to the user and seamlessly respond to user interactions. When the view is updated? It is usually updated when there are any changes found in the Model.
Controller - This part successfully acts as an intermediary between the Model and the View. From handling user input to taking care of updates, and even the Model. In addition, all the updates made in the View will reflect changes automatically in the Model.
Conclusion
So that’s all for now! I guess now you are thoroughly well-versed with the concept and why these software architectural patterns are considered as a cornerstone of any and every software development project.
So far, we have completed different types of architecture patterns. So it’s time to make your ultimate choice. It is advisable to hire an architect or a senior program to make the job simpler and better. One should know modern app development projects demand quick thinking and best practices, so be very picky with your tech partners.
I hope you did find the following post worth taking into account. In case, if you still have any kind of doubts or concerns, feel free to mention them in the comment section below. Good luck with your upcoming development project. Also, it would be great if you could share your thoughts on the following post in the comment section below.
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