Systems Architecture & Infrastructure Flashcards

What is the role of systems architecture?

Answer: To outline how systems and components interact

Systems architecture defines the fundamental organization of a system, outlining its components, their relationships to each other, and to the environment. It provides a blueprint for how different software and hardware elements interact to achieve specific functionalities and meet performance requirements. This design ensures that all parts of a system work cohesively and efficiently.

Which element is essential in designing IT infrastructure?

Answer: Scalability

Scalability is an essential element in designing IT infrastructure because it ensures that systems can handle increasing workloads or growth in data and users without compromising performance. A scalable infrastructure can efficiently expand or contract resources as demand changes, preventing bottlenecks and costly overhauls. This foresight allows the system to adapt to future business needs and growth.

What is cloud architecture?

Answer: Structure of cloud-based systems and services

Cloud architecture refers to the design and structure of systems and applications deployed within a cloud computing environment. It involves selecting appropriate cloud services, defining how they interact, and ensuring they meet requirements for scalability, reliability, security, and cost-effectiveness. This architecture leverages the distributed nature of the cloud to build flexible and resilient IT solutions.

Why is redundancy important in IT infrastructure?

Answer: It ensures system availability during failures

Redundancy is crucial in IT infrastructure to ensure high availability and fault tolerance. By having duplicate or backup components, systems can continue to operate even if one part fails, preventing downtime and data loss. This design principle is vital for critical systems where continuous operation is paramount, safeguarding against single points of failure.

What is the function of load balancing?

Answer: Distributes network or server load for performance

Load balancing is a technique used to distribute incoming network traffic or computational tasks across multiple servers or resources. Its primary function is to optimize resource utilization, maximize throughput, minimize response time, and prevent any single server from becoming overloaded. This ensures high availability and improved performance for applications and services.

Which is an advantage of modular architecture?

Answer: Enables flexibility and future upgrades

Modular architecture offers the significant advantage of enabling flexibility and easier future upgrades. By breaking down a system into independent, interchangeable modules, changes or enhancements can be made to specific components without affecting the entire system. This design promotes reusability, simplifies maintenance, and allows for more agile development and deployment of new features.

What is infrastructure as code (IaC)?

Answer: Managing infrastructure using code and scripts

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a practice where infrastructure (networks, virtual machines, load balancers, etc.) is managed and provisioned using machine-readable definition files, rather than manual hardware configuration. This approach allows infrastructure to be treated like software, enabling version control, automation, and consistent deployment across environments. IaC significantly improves efficiency, reduces errors, and speeds up infrastructure provisioning.

How do microservices relate to systems architecture?

Answer: They simplify upgrades and allow independent scaling

Microservices architecture breaks down a large application into a collection of small, independent services, each running in its own process and communicating via lightweight mechanisms. This approach simplifies upgrades because individual services can be developed, deployed, and scaled independently without impacting the entire system. It enhances agility, resilience, and allows teams to work on different parts of the application concurrently.

Why is monitoring important in infrastructure management?

Answer: It helps detect problems early and maintain performance

Monitoring is essential in infrastructure management to continuously observe the health, performance, and security of IT systems and components. It helps detect potential problems, anomalies, or performance degradation early, often before they impact users. Proactive monitoring allows for timely intervention, troubleshooting, and maintenance, ensuring optimal system performance and reliability.