What is N-Tier architecture?

Question

Wikipedia:

In software engineering, multi-tier architecture (often referred to as n-tier architecture) is a client-server architecture in which, the presentation, the application processing and the data management are logically separate processes. For example, an application that uses middleware to service data requests between a user and a database employs multi-tier architecture. The most widespread use of "multi-tier architecture" refers to three-tier architecture.

It's debatable what counts as "tiers," but in my opinion it needs to at least cross the process boundary. Or else it's called layers. But, it does not need to be in physically different machines. Although I don't recommend it, you can host logical tier and database on the same box.

Edit: One implication is that presentation tier and the logic tier (sometimes called Business Logic Layer) needs to cross machine boundaries "across the wire" sometimes over unreliable, slow, and/or insecure network. This is very different from simple Desktop application where the data lives on the same machine as files or Web Application where you can hit the database directly.

For n-tier programming, you need to package up the data in some sort of transportable form called "dataset" and fly them over the wire. .NET's DataSet class or Web Services protocol like SOAP are few of such attempts to fly objects over the wire.

It's based on how you separate the presentation layer from the core business logic and data access (Wikipedia)

• 3-tier means Presentation layer + Component layer + Data access layer.
• N-tier is when additional layers are added beyond these, usually for additional modularity, configurability, or interoperability with other systems.

It's a buzzword that refers to things like the normal Web architecture with e.g., Javascript - ASP.Net - Middleware - Database layer. Each of these things is a "tier".

N-tier data applications are data applications that are separated into multiple tiers. Also called "distributed applications" and "multitier applications," n-tier applications separate processing into discrete tiers that are distributed between the client and the server. When you develop applications that access data, you should have a clear separation between the various tiers that make up the application.

A typical n-tier application includes a presentation tier, a middle tier, and a data tier. The easiest way to separate the various tiers in an n-tier application is to create discrete projects for each tier that you want to include in your application. For example, the presentation tier might be a Windows Forms application, whereas the data access logic might be a class library located in the middle tier. Additionally, the presentation layer might communicate with the data access logic in the middle tier through a service such as a service. Separating application components into separate tiers increases the maintainability and scalability of the application. It does this by enabling easier adoption of new technologies that can be applied to a single tier without the requirement to redesign the whole solution. In addition, n-tier applications typically store sensitive information in the middle-tier, which maintains isolation from the presentation tier.

Taken from Microsoft website.

If I understand the question, then it seems to me that the questioner is really asking "OK, so 3-tier is well understood, but it seems that there's a mix of hype, confusion, and uncertainty around what 4-tier, or to generalize, N-tier architectures mean. So...what's a definition of N-tier that is widely understood and agreed upon?"

It's actually a fairly deep question, and to explain why, I need to go a little deeper. Bear with me.

The classic 3-tier architecture: database, "business logic" and presentation, is a good way to clarify how to honor the principle of separation of concerns. Which is to say, if I want to change how "the business" wants to service customers, I should not have to look through the entire system to figure out how to do this, and in particular, decisions business issues shouldn't be scattered willy-nilly through the code.

Now, this model served well for decades, and it is the classic 'client-server' model. Fast forward to cloud offerings, where web browsers are the user interface for a broad and physically distributed set of users, and one typically ends up having to add content distribution services, which aren't a part of the classic 3-tier architecture (and which need to be managed in their own right).

The concept generalizes when it comes to services, micro-services, how data and computation are distributed and so on. Whether or not something is a 'tier' largely comes down to whether or not the tier provides an interface and deployment model to services that are behind (or beneath) the tier. So a content distribution network would be a tier, but an authentication service would not be.

Now, go and read other descriptions of examples of N-tier architectures with this concept in mind, and you will begin to understand the issue. Other perspectives include vendor-based approaches (e.g. NGINX), content-aware load balancers, data isolation and security services (e.g. IBM Datapower), all of which may or may not add value to a given architecture, deployment, and use cases.