IT Infrastructure

Running head: IT INFRASTRUCTURE
IT INFRASTRUCTURE
(Student Name)
(Course Title)
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IT INFRASTRUCTURE 2
Question one
Application architecture
There are various components of application architecture. The way application layer software
is spread among the servers and clients in a network is what is known as an application
architecture. The three components of application architectures are;
 Data storage: This component is specifically used to store records
 Data access logic: The component is specifically used to provide the means of accessing
data, which is usually the means of data queries in structured query language (SQL)
 Application logic: This is also known as the business logic
 Presentation logic; this component is used to accept user commands (Blanc & Cotton,
2017)
Thin-client vs. thick-client architectures
Thick client is also fat client is that computer which can run its own software and
programs that one can purchase off-the-shelf. A thick client has its own complete OS and own
storage. On the other hand a thin client is that computer which can only function when network
connection is available. A thin client is more cost effective and they use lesser utilities than a
thick client. Microsoft one drive is a sample of thick client which is hosted in the cloud. This is a
sample of thin client as it allows users to access PowerPoint, excel, and word in the cloud.
Fortine is another sample of thin client as it allows users to access video game developed by Epic
games. Also twitter is a sample of thin client uses resources located on the internet to access the
twitter server

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Question two
Doman Name System (DNS) is also referred to as distributed directory which resolves
human readable hostnames like http://www.dyn.com into a machine readable IP address such as
50.16.103. One can describe a DNS as a phone book for the wide area network. If one knows the
person’s name but do not their names mobile phone numbers, one can simply look at it in the
phone book. This is the same service that is provided by the DNS server on the internet. I.e.
when one types dyn.com on their browser, the computer or the device that one is using to uses
DNS server to retrieve the site IP address of 50.16.85.103 in the internet (FitzGerald, Dennis,
& Durcikova, 2016).
Mx-record vs A-record
Mail eXchange-record (MX record) is a type of resource record in the DNS. MX-record
contains host names of the computer which handles the emails for a domain and a prioritization
code. On the other hand A-record or what is known as Adress record determines which IP
address belongs to a domain name. The A-record translates a domain name into an IP address.
Example of MX-record
 Domain: http://www.copernica.com

IT INFRASTRUCTURE 4
 Mail eXchanger: mail.copernica.com
 Priority: 10
Example of A-record is;
 Domain: http://www.copernica.com
 Host name: Mail
 IP address : 11.22.33.222 (Vasudevan, 2015)
Using NsLook to find to find the MX record(s) for iu.edu.
Nslook is one of commands used by network administrators to query the Domain Name
System to obtain IP address or any other DNS record. The screenshot finds the MX record for
iu.edu
Figure 1: MX record for iu.edu.