Case Study 2: Application Architecture Due Week 8 and worth 50 points You have been tasked with building a payroll program for a large organization with offices spread across the United States. The company has one larger data center that each office connects to via a wide area network (WAN). Write a 3-4 page paper in which you: Purchase the answer to view it Purchase the answer to view it Purchase the answer to view it Purchase the answer to view it
Application architecture plays a critical role in the development and implementation of complex software systems. In this case study, we are presented with the task of building a payroll program for a large organization with offices spread across the United States. The organization has a centralized data center that each office connects to via a wide area network (WAN).
The first step in designing the application architecture for the payroll program is to analyze the requirements of the system. This involves understanding the needs of the organization, such as the number of employees, the frequency of payroll processing, and any specific payroll calculations or regulations that need to be considered. Additionally, it is important to consider scalability and future growth of the organization, as well as any potential integration with existing systems.
Given the geographically dispersed nature of the organization’s offices, a distributed application architecture is recommended. This architecture is well suited to handle the network connectivity requirements and ensure efficient data transfer between the offices and the centralized data center.
One possible design for the application architecture is a client-server model, where the clients at each office connect to the server located in the centralized data center. This model allows for centralized management of the payroll system, ensuring data consistency and reducing the need for duplicate data storage and processing.
To further enhance the performance and reliability of the application, a load balancing mechanism can be implemented at the server side. Load balancing distributes the incoming requests from the clients across multiple servers, ensuring that the processing load is evenly distributed and avoiding bottlenecks in the system.
To ensure secure communication between the clients and the server, a secure communication protocol such as HTTPS can be used. This ensures that the data exchanged between the clients and the server is encrypted, providing protection against eavesdropping and data tampering.
Another important consideration in the application architecture is data storage. Given the large amount of employee data involved in a payroll system, a robust and scalable database system is required. A relational database management system (RDBMS) such as Oracle or MySQL can be used to store and manage the employee and payroll data.
In order to minimize the impact of network latency and ensure efficient data transfer, caching mechanisms can be implemented at both the client and server sides. The clients can cache frequently accessed data locally, reducing the need for frequent network requests. Similarly, the server can cache computed results or frequently accessed data, reducing the processing and data transfer overhead.
In conclusion, designing an effective application architecture for a payroll program requires careful consideration of the organization’s requirements, network connectivity, scalability, and security. A distributed client-server architecture, with load balancing, secure communication, and caching mechanisms, can provide a robust and efficient solution for the organization’s payroll needs.
