FREE online courses on Information Technology - Chapter 9 INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY ARCHITECTURES - Moving Toward the Client-Server
The connection of PCs to networks of midrange computers and mainframes has
resulted in the client server
architecture. A client on a personal computer connects to a PC, midrange
computer connects to a PC, midrange computer, or mainframe that is the server.
The server retrieves data and manipulates it
in some way for the client. The client may also process the data further after
moving it to his or her PC. A network may have more than one server. For
example, our network has various servers for different departments, and some
servers are dedicated to certain applications, such as running a mathematical
problem solving system. A user can connect to a number of different servers from
his or her local PC.
Vendors like Sun Microsystems adopted the client-server model as the basis for
their entire product line. Sun encourages customers to purchase client
workstations and a larger workstations to act as the server. Sun is working to
eliminate the mainframe and minicomputers (not manufactured by Sun) that do its
internal processing with its own client-server systems. The company currently
runs all of its factories and distribution systems on client-server systems
using Unix and uses a client-server system for all order entry and processing.
To provide powerful client-server systems in an effort to capture market share
from minis and mainframes, Sun has developed a large-scale server expandable to
hold up to a twenty processors, each with up to a terabyte (1012) of disk
capacity and 5 gigabyte (109) of RAM. Sun claims that the server supports up to
a thousand users initially and up to two thousand in its largest configuration.
