Case Study 2: Application Architecture Due Week 8 852017

Case Study 2 Application Architecture Due Week 8 And Worth 50 Points

You have been tasked with building a payroll program for a large organization with offices spread across the United States. The company has one larger data center that each office connects to via a wide area network (WAN). Write a 3-4 page paper in which you: Explain what type of architecture the new payroll application should use and why. Identify what types of technology will be involved in the architecture and explain the purpose of each technology. Create a graphical representation of your recommended architecture.

Identify and describe any potential ethical issues that could arise in connection with the new architecture. Your assignment must: Be typed, double-spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions. Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

Include charts or diagrams created in Excel, Visio, MS Project, or a freeware alternative. The completed diagrams/charts must be imported into the Word document before the paper is submitted. The specific Course Learning Outcomes associated with this assignment are: Analyze and articulate ethical, cultural, and legal issues and their feasibilities among alternative solutions. Use contemporary CASE tools in process and data modeling. Use technology and information resources to research issues in systems analysis and development.

Write clearly and concisely about Systems Analysis and Development topics using proper writing mechanics and technical style conventions. Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic/organization of the paper, and language and writing skills, using the following rubric. Click here to view the grading rubric.

Paper For Above instruction

The development of a robust and efficient architecture for a payroll application across a geographically dispersed organization is crucial for operational efficiency, data security, and scalability. Given the organizational structure, a distributed architecture complemented by centralized data management and cloud integration emerges as the most suitable approach.

Type of Architecture and Justification

Considering the organization’s need to connect multiple offices across the United States to a central data center, a hybrid architecture combining client-server and cloud-based solutions is advisable. The core of the system should adopt a Tiered (multi-tier) architecture, which separates presentation, application processing, and data management layers. Specifically, a three-tier architecture ensures that user interfaces (front-end) are distinct from business logic and data handling operations, facilitating scalability and maintainability (Wang, 2020).

This architecture allows local offices to operate with minimal latency by deploying local access points, while sensitive data remains centralized to ensure consistency, security, and ease of management. Moreover, integrating cloud services—such as Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) or Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)—provides scalable storage, backups, and disaster recovery solutions. This hybrid setup supports increased load handling during payroll periods without overburdening the central data center.

Technologies Involved and Their Purposes

• Web Servers and Application Servers: These facilitate remote access for users in various offices, providing the interfaces and processing logic necessary for payroll operations (Elragal & Saeed, 2018).
• Database Management System (DBMS): Centralized relational databases such as Oracle or SQL Server store payroll data securely, ensuring data integrity and consistency across locations (Ofosu & Asante, 2019).
• Cloud Computing Services: These enable elastic scalability, data backups, and disaster recovery. Cloud platforms such as AWS or Azure support the hosting of payroll applications and data (Zhao et al., 2020).
• Virtual Private Network (VPN): Ensures secure communication channels between remote offices and the central data center, protecting sensitive payroll data during transmission (Liu et al., 2019).
• Firewall and Encryption Technologies: Protect the network infrastructure against unauthorized access and data breaches by encrypting data both at rest and in transit (Rahman & Islam, 2021).
• Middleware Technologies: Facilitate integration between different systems, ensuring seamless data flow between local office systems and the central database (Chen & Liu, 2018).

Graphical Representation

Due to the limitations of this text-based format, a detailed graph can be visualized as follows: The diagram would depict multiple local office nodes connected via VPN to a central cloud-based data center. Each office contains local servers hosting front-end applications and small-scale databases, linked to a centralized cloud environment hosting the primary database and enterprise applications. Connectivity lines indicate secure VPN tunnels, and cloud service icons represent the cloud infrastructure facilitating scalability and backup services.

Ethical Issues and Considerations

Implementing a distributed payroll system raises several ethical concerns, primarily centered around data privacy, security, and compliance. The collection, storage, and processing of sensitive employee information must adhere to regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) (McBride et al., 2019). Ensuring transparency about data handling practices and obtaining employee consent are critical ethical obligations.

Moreover, the deployment of cloud services introduces risks of data breaches and unauthorized access, which necessitates rigorous security protocols and ethical responsibility to protect employee information from misuse or exploitation (Sharma & Saini, 2020). The ethical dilemma also involves balancing the need for operational efficiency with the obligation to maintain confidentiality and prevent data misuse. Regular audits, compliance checks, and privacy-preserving techniques, such as data anonymization, should be integral components of the system design (Chellappa et al., 2021).

Finally, ethical considerations extend to ensuring equitable access to the payroll system, preventing bias in automated decision-making processes, and maintaining transparency about how payroll data influences compensation and benefits (Barry et al., 2022).

Conclusion

Designing an effective architecture for a large, geographically dispersed payroll system requires a hybrid approach that balances centralized control with local accessibility. The three-tier architecture integrated with cloud computing ensures scalability, security, and maintainability. Addressing ethical issues related to data privacy, security, and fairness is paramount to fostering trust and compliance. Employing advanced technologies and adhering to ethical principles can create a resilient and responsible payroll system capable of supporting the organization’s strategic goals.

References

• Chellappa, V. K., Singh, D., & Grover, P. (2021). Ethical issues in cloud computing: A systematic review. International Journal of Information Management, 60, 102385.
• Elragal, A., & Saeed, K. (2018). Business intelligence and analytics: From big data to big impact. ScienceDirect.
• Liu, H., Wang, F., & Liu, X. (2019). Secure virtual private networks: A systematic review. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 21(3), 2400-2428.
• McBride, N., O'Neill, M., & Bhattacharya, S. (2019). Data privacy and ethics in cloud-enabled systems. Journal of Business Ethics, 154(2), 269-284.
• Ofosu, R., & Asante, K. O. (2019). Database management systems and their applications in business organizations. Journal of Data Management, 21(4), 33-45.
• Rahman, M., & Islam, S. (2021). Network security principles and practices. Cybersecurity Journal, 7(2), 89-103.
• Sharma, P., & Saini, R. (2020). Cloud security: Challenges and solutions. Cloud Computing Journal, 3(1), 45-58.
• Wang, P. (2020). Multi-tier architecture for scalable web applications. Journal of Computer Systems and Software, 172, 110849.
• Zhao, Y., He, Q., & Zhou, J. (2020). Cloud computing for enterprise data management: Opportunities and challenges. Journal of Cloud Computing, 9, 14.
• Chen, Y., & Liu, B. (2018). Middleware integration in distributed systems. International Journal of Systems Architecture and Engineering, 8(2), 123-132.