What is a 3-tier system architecture?

Published on 22. May, 2010 by admin in Basic Definitions, Company Blog

Modern cloud-based systems (Client-server) are usually structured around a 3-tier architecture (also referred to as multi-tier or n-tier architecture). The tiers are:

Data tier.
Business logic tier.
Presentation tier.

The first tier, the data tier, consists of a storage device and a database (in a network) or a file system (in standalone machines). The database/file system stores and retrieves data, relaying it to and fro the second tier – the business logic or business domain tier (or in 2-tier systems moves it directly to the user). In the business logic tier data coming from the two surrounding tiers is coordinated and processed, becoming information (processed data). Operations in the business logic tier are mostly automatic and done in the background without the active participation of the end user.

Once data from the database has finished processing the information is relayed to the third tier – the presentation tier. Here information is made ‘physically’ available to the user via desktop applications or web pages. This process is circular as data flows from the bottom up (database – business logic tier – presentation tier), and from the top down (presentation tier – business logic tier –database).

In order for processed information to be useful for the user it has to be presented in the presentation tier in familiar forms and on top of a functional user-interface (UI). These familiar forms are referred to as ‘content’ (structured information). In order for the user to be able to use content, it must be presented in functional user-interfaces (e.g. texts in a text editor, pictures in a picture viewer, audio and movies in a player, code in a compiler, widgets in applications, web pages in a browser, etc.).

IncrediCube is a cloud-based system that can work against any database and\or storage device. IncrediCube offers substantial innovation in the way content is structured and processed in the business logic tier, and in the way it is presented and rendered usable in the presentation tier.