A Primer on Enterprise Software Architecture Design Patterns and Principles
Enterprise software architecture is set to play a bigger role in the coming years as modern businesses continue to seek solutions that drive technological innovation.
Another key growth driver is the increasing need for businesses to align their enterprise architecture with their business strategy.
According to Business Report Research, the global enterprise architecture software market will grow to over $668 million by 2027.
In this article, we explore different enterprise software architecture patterns and principles and how these can apply to your organization.
Understanding Enterprise Software Architecture
In a nutshell, enterprise software architecture helps your organization streamline and optimize its technological processes. It provides the blueprint for how your software and enterprise data management system should interact.
Enterprise software architecture in modern organizations gives large-scale businesses a more structured approach to meeting their business requirements and objectives. It provides them with a coherent and well-defined framework that drives efficiency and ensures their software components’ optimal performance and scalability. With it, you can streamline critical processes like cross-platform app development and enterprise software product development.
Adopting enterprise software architecture patterns and principles that work for your organization helps you become more agile and better able to navigate today’s technological landscape.
Core Principles in Modern Enterprise Software Architecture
These principles guide your architectural decisions, enabling you to create applications with high maintainability and reduced complexity.
SOLID Principles
These are five design principles to follow when working on Object-Oriented Programming System projects. When taken together, SOLID principles facilitate scalability in software design.
Single Responsibility Principle (SRP): Each module or class must have one responsibility and one reason to change. Following this principle leads to more modular systems that don’t require you to compound additional responsibilities to other modules or classes.
Open-Closed Principle (OCP): Under this principle, all software entities must be open for enhancements or extensions. However, these same entities shouldn’t have to be modified.
Liskov Substitution Principle (LSP): A software program’s objects can be replaced with subtypes without affecting its code or correctness, as long as these subtypes come from a derived class.
Interface Segregation Principle (ISP): This principle states that existing interfaces must not be augmented by new methods. Instead, each interface should be created to cater to specific client needs.
Dependency Inversion Principle (DIP): Your high-level modules shouldn’t rely on low-level modules. Its focus is on detail-based abstractions instead of implementation details.
Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY)
This principle entails writing code once and using that as the single authority over an application’s behavior.
Separation of Concerns
Under this principle, software must be separated based on the work it does. For instance, if you’re developing an application, you should have a separate construct for the behavior responsible for executing action A and the behavior responsible for performing action B, as these are separate concerns.
Common Design Patterns in Enterprise Software Architecture
Enterprise software architecture patterns are used to standardize processes and software systems. They enable organizations to solve design problems and achieve business goals like scalability and flexibility. Architecture patterns also allow software architects and developers to design and execute systems that are capable of meeting modern enterprises’ demands.
Because these patterns provide standardized principles for software development, they can enhance your organization’s productivity and agility and the performance of your software solutions.
Layered Architecture Pattern
This architecture pattern features interconnected layers that are not interdependent. The multiple layers each have a specific role in your application. It’s easy to maintain and develop. However, you need to have a solid understanding of each module in the application so you can make sense of the layers’ independence. It’s an ideal choice when you need to quickly build an application or if you’re looking to build general applications.
Event-Driven Architecture Pattern
An event-driven architecture pattern is agile. It features decoupled components that are triggered based on events like shopping cart abandonment, which makes it ideal for eCommerce websites or apps.
Microservices Architecture Pattern
This pattern allows developers to build apps as a set of services. It has decoupled components that can be deployed, developed, or tested separately. It’s ideal for enterprise software application development and building highly scalable apps.
Monolithic Architecture
In a monolithic architecture, your application is developed as a single unit whose components are deployed as a single codebase. While this pattern is easy to monitor and saves you time, it isn’t scalable. When you need to make updates to your app, you’d have to modify your entire codebase.
It’s worth noting that, as with any custom enterprise software development project, costs can vary. This helpful guide to enterprise software pricing models sheds some light on key variables that influence pricing.
Case Studies and Examples of Real-World Applications
What does effective enterprise software architecture look like in the real world? Below are a few examples of select software architecture patterns and how modern organizations are using them.
Microservices
This pattern is widely used for modern enterprise software architecture. Netflix now uses the AWS microservices architecture, where communication between microservices takes place over APIs. Because each service in this architecture has its own codebase, developers can run them independently. Previously, Netflix relied on a monolithic architecture. However, the company experienced a major outage in 2008. When Netflix started using a microservices architecture, they moved away from using a singular, vulnerable stack. This helped the company avert service outages and helped it become more agile. Aside from Netflix, Spotify also uses a microservices architecture to provide users with hassle-free experiences.
Event-Driven Architecture
Event-driven architecture lends itself well to real-time data processing and IoT applications. Unilever used an event-driven architecture to merge different online touchpoints and create a single source of truth. Through this, the company was able to provide users with omnichannel experiences using real-time data updates.
Common Challenges and Best Practices
Modern enterprise software architecture faces a string of challenges that may prevent your enterprise from meeting your business objectives and fully utilizing your IT ecosystem.
Common Challenges
Integration Issues: You may be using too many solutions in an attempt to enhance operations. So, you get bits and pieces of applications spread across your IT ecosystem. The problem is that instead of streamlining your operations, these can lead to duplication, errors, or issues with compatibility within your current tech stack.
Legacy Systems: Aging legacy systems may be preventing you from becoming more agile. They’re slow, bloated, and often inflexible in terms of adjustments. If you work with monolithic systems, you’re likely locked in and struggling to keep up with modern enterprise demands.
Issues with Scalability: Finding scalable and secure technology is a pressing issue for modern enterprises. However, it’s essential to provide users with a secure solution that’s compliant with regulatory requirements. Custom enterprise software development can give you a secure and reliable solution while ensuring that you have full control over it.
Best Practices
Keep It Simple: Software development should ideally be kept simple. This lets your organization achieve better collaboration with your software development team. It also makes your software design easier to understand, maintain, and scale. Consider looking into custom software development to create a simple architecture that aligns with your business goals and requirements.
Focus on Functional and Non-Functional Requirements: Focusing on these two requirements allows you to create a system that aligns your business objectives with your software architecture design and development efforts. Doing so also helps you meet the needs of end-users without compromising your system’s performance, security, and scalability.
Implement Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD): CI/CD enables organizations to become more agile. By running a CI/CD pipeline, you’re automating manual human intervention. This helps you:
- Maintain a continuous software development cycle
- Boost efficiency and streamline workflows
- Minimize downtime and effectively integrate any updates or changes to your code
Final Thoughts
The bottom line is that, yes, enterprise software architecture matters, even in today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape. Having a deep understanding of it allows your organization to understand the impact of your decisions, both in the business and technical aspects.
It’s also worth noting that enterprise software architecture has expansive use cases. Aside from streamlining operations and ensuring regulatory compliance, it enables you to identify and integrate systems that work best for your enterprise. Regardless of the software architecture patterns or principles you adopt, shaping an enterprise software architecture that aligns with your business objectives requires you to:
- Define your business objectives
- Evaluate the current state of your IT infrastructure and systems
- Get your key stakeholders involved, from executives to end users
- Monitor your implementation plan and make adjustments as needed
At Taazaa, we understand what it takes to build solutions that make a lasting impact. We offer enterprise product engineering services and enterprise mobile application development services tailored to meet your specific business goals.
