Information Systems Security Architecture Professional (ISSAP) Practice Exam

Centralization means concentrating resources and control in one place, with data, services, and policy enforcement handled from a single central system. In a centralized architecture, clients or sites connect to that central resource, making it easier to manage security policies, authentication, patches, backups, and auditing from one location. This setup often results in consistent governance and simpler incident response because there is a unified point of control. However, it also creates a single point of failure and potential performance bottlenecks if the central system becomes overloaded or unavailable. The alternative of distributed architecture spreads components across multiple locations for resilience and scalability, which is the opposite approach. A gateway device is a networking component, not the overall architectural model. Shadow IT refers to unsanctioned technology use, not a formal architectural pattern.