An ecommerce site that does not use a well-designed n-tier architecture is like having a website with no backend software.!

In fact, it’s more than just being lacking in this area – it can be described as actively detrimental to your business.

Why? Because most of the time, when someone visits your site, their browser will ask themselves if there are any open tabs or windows for another app to take over. If so, then your site cannot handle heavy traffic at that moment, which would negatively affect your business.

This article will go into detail about what an n-tier architecture is, how important it is to have one, and some examples of why you should consider creating one for your ecommerce site.

If you want to become a successful online seller, you must learn how to design and implement an n-tiered system.

Second-tier server - SQL Server

With most business applications, there is at least one part that requires a lot of processing power to run effectively. This could be due to high demands for raw data storage or computation, or because the software needs lots of computing resources to function properly.

With many businesses relying more and more heavily on technology, their demand for processing power grows every day. In fact, technology has become integral to how companies operate and succeed in the global marketplace.

That’s why it makes sense to think about your business as having two distinct tiers – internal and external.

The internal tier is made up of servers and technologies that are specific to your company. These are things like Windows or Linux operating systems, MySQL database programs, etc. They all work together to allow your employees and departments access to the same resources you do.

This way they can use them both directly and through third party apps designed to connect with these services.

The second tier is what we refer to as the external layer. A couple examples here would be Google Apps or Microsoft Office 365. You probably have an account already if you used one before!

These are good candidates for being considered the next level server for your e-business. What kind of server will depend on the functions of your organization.

Something very important to note about this second tier is that it does not need to contain any software.

Third-tier server - Application Server

An application server is usually what people refer to as the middle tier of an n-tiered architecture. This term comes from the early days when most applications had only one layer, which was the browser they were hosted on!

These days it’s more common to have several tiers in an application, but there are some benefits to having just one. One of the major advantages of having just one server like this is cost effectiveness.

If you look at the average price per CPU core these days, you will see that many companies are dropping down to quad cores or even hexa cores for each employee. By using fewer CPUs, you get better performance for less money!

Another advantage to having just one server is scalability. Once your app has enough traffic, you can add extra servers or additional budget to expand the capacity. You would need to reevaluate how much RAM and storage each server gets though depending on whether those resources are shared or not.

Fourth-tier server - File Server

A file server is an integral part of any well-designed ecommerce website. The file server comes together with your fourth tier web server software like Shopify or WordPress. This file server will store all of your site’s files such as pictures, documents, and videos.

Most importantly it stores your shopping cart data! That way you don’t have to re-enter this information every time someone makes a purchase.

The file server can be anything from an internal hard drive, external USB device, or even cloud storage such as Dropbox or Google Drive.

It really doesn’t matter what type of file server you choose as long as it’s very stable and easy to use. Most internet companies use Amazon AWS for their file servers because of its wide range of services that they offer.

Fifth-tier server - Network Server

An example of this is what most large businesses have these days, where your browser (such as Google Chrome or Firefox) connects to a web server somewhere. This way you don’t need to own a domain name to create an online store!

Most companies that use such a network server are Amazon, eBay, or any other big company that has its own domain name. These companies pay for space on an external server location so that their website can be accessed easily worldwide.

This isn’t too different from how things were back in the early years of the internet, except now there are lots more options than just having your own domain name.

Sixth-tier server - Hosting Server

A hosting server is what we refer to as a sixth-level server in software architecture terminology. This term comes from the way that computer science teaches nested functions of a program.

In programming, there are three main levels: input, processing, and output. At the input level, you have things like files or web pages that you want to use the software to process (like adding content or changing colors). These items go into the software directly.

At the processing level, you have modules or tools that take information from the previous layer and put it somewhere else. For example, if your software was designed to edit pictures, then the picture editing module would get its input either from another photo editing tool or directly from something like a digital camera.

The outputs at this stage are usually files or documents such as PDFs or word documents. All these go through the image editing software after being processed within one of those modules.

Seventh-tier server - Digital Certificate Authority

A seventh layer of this n-tier system is important to note here, as it forms the digital certificate authority (CA) that companies use to create online accounts for their products and services.

A CA is a trusted third party website used to verify another site’s authenticity. This is done through cryptography, which is the study of coded messages and computers that work with them.

By using a CA to authenticate sites, users can feel more comfortable shopping online, knowing that there are mechanisms in place to ensure that what you're buying is legitimate.

That way, they don't have to worry about software being malicious or fraudulent. They also get paid per transaction for this service.

The payment typically goes towards hosting costs for the CA or marketing expenses for its business.

Eighth-tier server - Public Key Certificate

An eighth-level server is needed to authenticate users coming from outside of your organization, or being reauthenticated after changing their password. This level of authentication is called a public key certificate. A public key cert comes with two pieces of information: your domain name and the unique private key that matches it.

Your domain name can be anything you want it to be — sometimes they are easy to find, like google.com, but others may require some research to determine exactly who owns the domain. The private key is what allows someone to access your ecommerce site because only you know the combination to decrypt and read the data in the website.

Most people use a free SSL (secure socket layer) service such as Cloudflare’s TLS1 for this purpose. Free means nothing extra will cost you money, so do not hesitate to give it a try! They even have very affordable paid plans now.

Ninth-tier server - Trusted Certificate Authority

An nth-level certificate authority (CA) is a trusted third party that verifies other companies’ identities. A CA issues digital certificates, or “certificates” for use in encrypting web traffic between clients and websites.

A certificate contains information about who is signing up for what to ensure their identity, as well as their private key so they can decrypt messages sent from their device. Most major browsers now require at least one valid certificate from a given CA before allowing users to access encrypted services like Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc.

Certificate authorities are paid per authenticated user, which means the more people using their service, the higher paychecks they receive! As such, there are several reputable CAs out there with large networks of customers – especially in North America. Some famous ones include VeriSign, Thawte, and StartSSL.

By having a few trustworthy CAs, most ecommerce sites will be able to rely on encryption/authentication. Although it would not prevent malicious actors from forging messages, it could help uncover fraud.