Architecture

What Is Architecture?

In web development, architecture (also known as web architecture) refers to the arrangement that exhibits the connections among databases, middleware systems, user interfaces, and application components. If the architecture is not correctly implemented, then various applications may not be able to function in tandem.

Web Application Architecture Components

DNS
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a crucial foundational system that facilitates the search for a domain name and its corresponding IP address. Consequently, a designated server receives a user’s request. In essence, DNS functions similarly to a phonebook, but for websites on the Internet.

Databases
The web application component’s name is self-explanatory. It offers tools for managing, inserting, searching, modifying, eliminating, and executing calculations within the database. Typically, the job servers are directly linked to the web application servers.

Data Warehouse
Most contemporary applications involve dealing with data, which entails collecting, storing, and analyzing it. These procedures consist of three stages:

The data is forwarded to the data “firehose,” which presents a streaming interface that ingests and processes the data.
The raw, processed, and supplemental data is dispatched to cloud storage.
The processed and supplemental data is sent to a data warehouse.

This is a distinctive online model for storing and exchanging data through the internet. The Data Warehouse can store various types of files, including videos, photos, and so forth.

Web App Servers
This module handles a user’s inquiry and transmits various files (JSON, XMK, etc.) to a web browser. It typically relies on back-end systems like a database, cache server, job queue, and additional infrastructures to carry out this function. Furthermore, a minimum of two servers, linked to the load balancer, work together to handle user requests.

Load Balancers
The main function of a Load Balancer is to handle horizontal scaling. It achieves this by directing incoming requests to one of many servers and sending a response to the user. Typically, web application servers are replicated in multiple copies, each functioning in the same way. Consequently, the load balancer distributes tasks among them, preventing any single server from being overloaded.

Caching Services
A caching service offers data storage and retrieval capabilities. It operates by storing the results of server requests in cache, enabling faster retrieval of data in subsequent requests. The technique involves referencing prior results to expedite computations, making it ideal in situations where computations are slow, likely to be repeated, or yield identical outcomes for a particular request.

CDN
The Content Delivery System (CDN) manages the transfer of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and image files. It distributes the website’s content to servers globally, allowing users to access a variety of resources.

Types of Web Application Architecture

Architecture always divides into two types – frontend and backend. For this point, you need to talk about types of frontend (Single-Page Application (SPAs) and Server-Side Rendered Application (SSR) )and backend (Microservices and Serverless Architecture) separately.

Regardless of the blurred distinction between frontend and backend development, web applications rely on both. Next, we will examine their respective categories in detail:

Frontend

Single-Page Application (SPAs)
Single-Page applications, or SPAs, were developed to simplify the work of programmers. With SPAs, users don’t need to reload entire pages every time they perform an action on a website. Instead, they can interact with the website and receive updated content on the current page.

SPAs are designed to request only the necessary content and data, minimizing interruptions to user activity and improving the overall user experience. JavaScript is the most commonly used programming language in this type of web design architecture.

Server-Side Rendered Application (SSR)
SSR refers to the method of transforming a website built using a client-side Javascript framework into HTML and CSS on the server. This technique helps to enhance page loading speed by delivering critical assets promptly, thus speeding up the rendering process on the browser.

In the development of an app that utilizes SSR, the server processes all the data and presents a new HTML document with every request. As soon as the browser receives the CSS, it can proceed to paint the UI without having to wait for JavaScript to load, resulting in a faster page load time.

Backend

Microservices
Microservices, a type of service-oriented architecture (SOA), focuses on small and lightweight services that perform a single function. This web architecture design is highly efficient and productive, saving developers a lot of time.

One of the major advantages of microservices is that the components do not have to be created using the same programming language, which means they are not interdependent. This allows developers to choose their preferred technology, making it faster and easier to develop the microservices architecture.

Serverless Architecture
The term “serverless architecture” may lead you to believe that it operates without servers, but that’s not entirely true. Rather, it means that configuring and managing servers with management software is no longer necessary. Instead, third-party providers offer infrastructure support. These providers offer outsourcing servers and handle infrastructure management.

When utilizing this type of web application architecture, app developers turn to cloud infrastructure services providers for outsourcing servers and infrastructure management. If you’re not interested in managing and supporting servers and hardware, serverless architecture can be a lifesaver. The beauty of this approach is that you can focus on executing code logic and leave the infrastructure as is.

Web Application Architecture Principal Criterias

The ideal web application architecture has to be efficient and straightforward to ensure smooth web app development and maintenance. It’s the truth that high-level architecture provides an easier extension and modification as well as testing, debugging, and comprehension.

So, have a look at the principal criteria for building a reliable application architecture: