Evolutionary design of information systems architectures

Information system design and optimum sizing is a very complex task. Theoretical research and practitioners often tackle the optimization problem by applying specific techniques for the optimization of individual design phases, usually leading to local optima. Conversely, this paper proposes the definition of a design methodology based on an evolutionary approach to the optimization of the client/server-farm distributed structure, which is typical of a distributed information technology (IT) architecture. The optimization problem consists of finding the minimum-cost physical systems that satisfy all architectural requirements given by the designer. The proposed methodology allows for the identification of the architectural solution that minimizes costs, against different information system requirements and multiple design alternatives, thorough a genetic-based exploration of the solution space. Experimental results show that costs can be significantly reduced with respect to conventional approaches adopted by IT designers and available in the professional literature.