Microsoft® .NET: Architecting Applications for the Enterprise

Chapter 1. Architects and Architecture Today

The purpose of software engineering is to control complexity, not to create it.

— Dr. Pamela Zave

At the beginning of the computing age, in the early 1960s, the costs of hardware were largely predominant over the costs of software. Some 40 years later, we find the situation to be radically different.

Hardware costs have fallen dramatically because of the progress made by the industry. Software development costs, on the other hand, have risen considerably, mostly because of the increasing complexity of custom enterprise software development. Cheaper computers made it worthwhile for companies to add more and more features to their information systems. What in the beginning was a collection of standalone ...