What is Database Architecture?

Database architecture describes how a database management system (DBMS) will be integrated with your application. When designing a database architecture, you must make decisions that will decide how your applications are deployed and maintained.

Database architecture is based on the client server architecture, from which many architectures have further evolved. The main database architecture types are one-tier, two-tier, three-tier, distributed, cloud-based, and federated architecture.

There are many different ways to architect a DBMS solution, as given below:

• One-tier architecture (local database)
• Two-tier architecture (client-server)
• Three-tier architecture (presentation, application, database)
• Distributed architecture (a three-tier, or N-tier, architecture distributed across various nodes for better scalability and availability)
• Cloud-based architecture (database is offered as a service over cloud)
• Federated architecture (multiple databases can be accessed and queried through a federated engine)

The four components of a database structure are:

• User.
• Query processor.
• Storage manager.
• Physical storage device.