Software Architecture Patterns, 2nd Edition

Chapter 2. Architectural Structures and Styles

Architecture styles allow you to use existing and well-known structures that support certain architectural characteristics (also known as nonfunctional quality attributes, system quality attributes, or “-ilities”). They not only provide you with a head start on defining an architecture for a given system, but they also facilitate communication among developers, architects, quality assurance testers, operations experts, and even in some cases, business stakeholders.

Architecture Classification

Architecture styles are classified as belonging to one of two main architectural structures: monolithic (single deployment unit) and distributed (multiple deployment units, usually consisting of services). This classification is important to understand because as a group, distributed architectures support much different architecture characteristics than monolithic ones. Knowing which classification of architecture to use is the first step in selecting the right architecture for your business problem.

Monolithic Architectures

Monolithic architecture styles (as illustrated in Figure 2-1) are generally much simpler than distributed ones, and as such are easier to design and implement. These single deployment unit applications are fairly inexpensive from an overall cost standpoint. Furthermore, most applications architected using a monolithic architecture style can be developed and deployed much more quickly than distributed ones.

Figure 2-1. ...