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Based On What You Know of The Operation of A University

The N-tier architecture used by universities typically follows a three-tier structure. This includes a presentation tier for user interaction, an application tier that handles logic and computations, and a data tier for information storage. At Stanford University, students interact with an admission portal at the presentation tier, the application tier performs tasks like calculating attendance, and the data tier stores student and staff data. This structure allows for scalability, easier management of each tier, and quick isolation of issues.

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43 views2 pages

Based On What You Know of The Operation of A University

The N-tier architecture used by universities typically follows a three-tier structure. This includes a presentation tier for user interaction, an application tier that handles logic and computations, and a data tier for information storage. At Stanford University, students interact with an admission portal at the presentation tier, the application tier performs tasks like calculating attendance, and the data tier stores student and staff data. This structure allows for scalability, easier management of each tier, and quick isolation of issues.

Uploaded by

Kade Kevin
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Based on what you know of the operation of a university, how does the N-

tier architecture look like for this organization.


N-tier structure in IT is an architectural setup of a computer application that is laid out in separate
tiers. A tier is defined as a single layer of infrastructure which is able to carry out its logical function
independently in a server. The N in the N-tier architecture means that it is composed of multiple
tiers. Most commonly, the three-layered N-tiers is used in programs (AlGhamdi & Manuel, 2003).
The following diagram is a representation of three-tier infrastructure. It is composed of a
presentation tier, an application tier and a data tier.

Figure 1 - A three N-tiered architecture (Mehta, 2008)

This basic three-tiered infrastructure is used in most of the university portals by administration
departments. I will explain this using an example of Stanford University in the US, using this three-
tiered infrastructure for their administration portal.

The presentation tier is where the students of Stanford are able to interact with the interface of the
university admission portal. At this layer, the students will be able to pass on certain command
prompts, such as keyboard inputs and mouse clicks. So, for example, they would be able to type in
their usernames and setup passwords for their login identifications provided to them by the
university administration. Furthermore, they would be able to visually see all the data the program
would have to show them, that is all the viewable elements will be displayed here.

The application tier is where the computer logic is logged. It performs the algorithmic logic of
arithmetic and any other computations. It acts as an intermediate between the presentation layer
and data layer. The user would provide a command, such as calculating their attendance of a month,
and the application layer would perform this task of calculating the attendance percentage from
extracting data from the data tier.

The data tier is where all the data of the students and staff members would be saved. It responds to
the application tier providing it with a prompt. It would carry all the information and particulars of
staff members and students. It is also able to store large amounts of data and perform data search
when provided with a prompt quickly and efficiently. The information is then provided back to the
processing layer for further processing.

If a student from Stanford wants to find know about their marks in their exams, they would interact
with the presentation tier providing inputs for finding their results. The application tier would
perform the intermediate task and ask the data tier for the required information. The data is passed
back to the application tier that would be displayed on the presentation tier. The benefit of using N-
tier architecture is that more than three tiers could be added to the program depending upon the
usage of the customer. So, for example, if the university wants to allow the students to access and
update information from anywhere in the world, they will add another tier of internet server as an
intermediate tier for the students to be able to see the database. Likewise, cloud storage could be
provided as an alternate tier of architecture to provide extra storage space, and capable of accessing
data online using internet (Xiaong, Wang, & Malkowski, 2011). Furthermore, the tiers are easier to
manage and the modifications you make when working on one part won't influence the other
functions. Additionally, you can quickly identify the source of any issue. Attention should be made
that network bandwidth and hardware specifications are enough to deal with the fast-paced
interfacing between tiers, or else the program would be slow and laggy in response.

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