A cost-oriented methodology for the design of web based IT architectures

This paper proposes a design methodology of Web-based IT architectures tying organizational requirements to technical choices and costs. Information system design and optimum sizing is the result of a reconciliation of several conflicting requirements, including technical performance and costs. Web-based IT architectures involve a number of design choices with significant cost implications: the adoption of thin clients executing Web applications remotely, the choice of the number of architectural tiers over the Web, the allocation of applications on physical machines and the total number of servers involved. The main goal of this paper is the identification of a sequence of design steps, from requirements analysis to physical implementation, that allows designers to estimate the cost implications of architectural choices and, by evaluating multiple design alternatives, determine the minimum-cost architectural solution. Preliminary results from the empirical verification of the methodology indicate that for Web-based architectures cost reductions can be significant and would support the practical use of a cost-oriented approach as a complement to traditional performance evaluations.

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