2-tier Teamcenter is considered a highly distributed computing infrastructure. There is a database, either Oracle or MS SQL, and a FSC Volume at its core. Each workstation has all the logic code in the bin folder and connects directly to the Database and TC_DATA folder to perform actions.

In 2-tier mode, the business logic on the workstation can send thousands of SQL queries to the database for a simple action such as opening the home folder. The network latency to the Oracle or MS SQL database must be 30ms or less to function correctly.

4-tier Teamcenter, on the other hand, moved the business logic processing to the server side, and the workstation sends basic requests to the server. This has many benefits, such as the business logic processing being located on a high-speed link to the database. This is also a more VPN-friendly protocol.

In the 4-tier mode, the traffic between the client and the data center is lightweight. The 4-tier also has many other benefits, such as using the web protocol SOAP and SOA, allowing easy customization.

‍