Context and Problem
Applications need structured separation of concerns to improve maintainability and scalability.
- Monolithic architectures mix concerns, making updates difficult
- Security and access control require structured layers
- Performance optimizations need clear separation between presentation, logic, and data layers
Solution
N-tier architecture divides an application into separate layers for user interface, business logic, and data storage.
- Implement a presentation layer for UI and API interactions
- Create a business logic layer for core processing
- Design a data access layer for database interactions
- Ensure security and performance optimizations across tiers
Benefits
- Modularity
- Easier to manage and maintain separate concerns
- Security
- Enforce access control at each layer
- Scalability
- Scale each layer independently
- Maintainability
- Isolate business logic from presentation and data
Trade-offs
- Latency
- More layers introduce processing overhead
- Complexity
- Requires proper orchestration between layers
- Deployment Overhead
- Each tier may require separate deployment strategies
Issues and Considerations
- Data Layer Performance
- Ensuring efficient queries and indexing
- Load Balancing
- Distributing requests across layers efficiently
- API Latency
- Reducing overhead between application layers
When to Use This Pattern
- Enterprise applications requiring clear separation of concerns
- Applications with strict security and access control needs
- Scalable systems that require independent scaling of tiers