Patterns help us deal with complexity. At the level of a single software component, you can use software patterns such as the ones described by the four authors of the book (better known as the Gang of Four) Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software. When we move higher up and start looking at the architecture between different components, knowing when and how to apply architectural patterns can go a long way.

There are countless such patterns that are useful for different scenarios. In fact, to even get to know all of them, you would need to read more than just one book. That being said, we selected several patterns for this book, suited for achieving various architectural goals.

In this chapter, we'll introduce you to a few concepts and fallacies related to architectural design; we'll show...