Application Architecture

The company wishes to implement a payroll system for a large organization with offices across the United States. The different offices connect to a central data center through a wide area network. The main purpose of the wide area network is to ensure that the geographically distant remote offices interconnect with one another and can share systems. This type of application is a complex application that will be able to handle many sub processes and methods originating from different sources within the company. The best type of architecture to use for this application is the extended enterprise architecture. This is the most ideal application architecture since it will help in handing the required processes by the business (Lankhorst, 2009). Furthermore, in this sort of architecture, the same business process handles multiple internal processes. As mentioned earlier, it is clear that data and information on the system will be originating from different sources. Therefore, the extended enterprise architecture will provide a platform through which the company can send, receive, and process such data and information effectively throughout the entire organization (Lankhorst, 2009).

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Payroll administration depends on other internal processes like accounting, human resource, and finance. In this case, the accounting process is essential in budgeting the required funds to cover the organizations payroll. On the other hand, the finance process is essential in ensuring that funds are disbursed to cover the organizations payroll. Lastly, human resource is responsible for maintaining the database of the companys workforce. This type of architecture will provide the best grounds for many sub-systems in the company to be able to work together to give the desired result. It will ensure that the different departments are brought together and work harmoniously towards ensuring the effective handing of payroll at the company. All these sub-components may perform tasks that may seem similar but they are completely different roles that require different information. The actual activities require completion by different applications that need to communicate together.

This application architecture should allow the overall system to perform a number of roles. These individual roles include the components to perform payroll processing, employee payroll administration, accounting component, and payroll processing at the provider. All these may seem like one function but they are independent functions carried out by different components of an application. The information they need is different but they need to be able to work together before payroll can be processed. The extended enterprise application architecture allows the assembly of different components. The organization also has offices spread out through the country. However, all the satellite offices connect to a central data center through a wide area network.

The payroll application will also make use of client-server proxy architecture. This architecture allows numerous nodes to connect to a central data server. In this proposed architecture, the organization will have one central server center where all other offices connect and draw information. The payroll system will need to gather data and create information constantly and this requires handing by the architecture. The client-server proxy architecture allows the application to be able to access the central data center easily and efficiently (Cavalcanti, 2015). It does this by allowing management of access to the central server where all the information is stored by the many satellite offices. In addition, it allows for harmonious and consistent data and information throughout all the offices. This is mainly attributed to the fact that all offices will have a similar source of information and data. It is important to note that consistency is key to effective payroll processing. A system should be always available in order to fulfil its role. This architecture allows for availability of the system (Cavalcanti, 2015).

When dealing with such an application, some ethical issues require consideration. Payroll systems by their very nature handle sensitive and confidential information such as employee names, numbers, contacts, social security numbers, and emails just to mention a few. When using a system normally, this type of information is usually restricted to only the people with the appropriate authorization. However, when applications handle the information, it is difficult to limit controls. This has resulted in a situation where an application requires access to more data and information than needed. It is critical for the organization to ensure that only individuals with authorized access can access the data stored in the payroll system. Failure to this may lead to unauthorized individuals accessing the data stored in the system. When this happens, the confidentiality of the information can be compromised.

The second ethical issue may arise because of the design of the application. The organization has various offices that connect to a central server using a wide area network. In order to create the wide area network, the internet has been used to expand range. This means that as the different offices communicate with the central server, confidential data is being transmitted through the internet. This increases the risk of such information leakage. Ethical issues will arise if the organization has not put in place measures to protect the data during transmission in order to leave it exposed.

References:

Lankhorst, M. (2009). Enterprise architecture at work: Modelling, communication, and analysis. Dordrecht: Springer.Cavalcanti, J. C. (2015). Effects of IT on enterprise architecture, governance, and growth. Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference.