Information Systems Architecture

Information systems (IS) are composed of distinct, interrelated elements that aim to fulfill desired features. This chapter introduces the concept of IS architecture as a way to meaningfully describe and design the underlying structure of an IS. It presents nine basic principles of IS architectures and explains them using the ex-ample of the cloud-based storage service Dropbox. This introduction to IS archi-tecture also introduces the most common architectural patterns (i.e. client-server architecture, tier architectures, peer-to-peer architecture, model view controller, and service-oriented architecture) in the realm of Internet computing and briefly discusses their main strengths and weaknesses.