Information systems architecture styles and business interaction patterns: Toward theoretic correspondence

Abstract

During the past decade, so many corporations worldwide have adopted client/server or request/reply computing that it has become the dominant paradigm today. This includes the request/reply style of the Internet and the Web, which is embedded in the IP and HTTP protocols, respectively. However, despite its many successes, there are problems with client/server computing. Choosing it as the default architecture can result in a mismatch between the client/server system's request/reply style and the pattern of interaction inherent in a firm's business models. The adverse effects of such mismatching are many: high operating cost, bandwidth bottlenecks, and, in a worst-case scenario, a lack of system scalability. With the objective of clarifying choices and guiding decision making in the design and selection of architecture styles, I posit a descriptively relevant conceptual framework. Based in communication theory, speech-act theory, and the information systems strategy literature, this framework will lay down elements of fit upon which business requirements and information systems characteristics can be matched.