Application Distribution


Servers & Clients

The terms server and client each have both a hardware and software aspect. This section briefly discusses these terms in both aspects in greater detail to provide you with a foundation for the material presented in the next section.

Server Hardware And Software

The term server is often used to refer both to a piece of computing hardware on which a server application runs and to the server application itself. I will use the term server to refer to hardware. I will use the term server application to refer to a software component whose job is to provide some level of service to another entity.

As figure 19-4 illustrates, it is the job of a server to host server applications. However, as desktop computing power increases, the lines between client and server hardware become increasingly blurry. A good definition for a server then is any computer used to host one or more server applications as its primary job. A server is usually (should be) treated as a critical piece of capital equipment within an organization. Server operating requirements are used to specify air conditioning, electrical, and flooring requirements for data centers. Servers are supported by data backup and recovery procedures and, if they are truly agency critical, will have some form of fault tolerance and redundancy designed in as well.

image from book
Figure 19-4: Client and Server Hardware and Applications

A server running a server application is also referred to as a host. The term host extends to any computer running any application.

Client Hardware And Software

The term client is also used to describe both hardware and software. Client hardware is any computing device that hosts an application that requires or uses the services of a server application. Client software is any application that requires or uses the services provided by a server application. For example, when you run Microsoft Internet Explorer on your home computer you are running a client application. You use Internet Explorer to access web sites via the Internet. These web sites are served up by a web server (i.e., an HTTP server) which is a server application hosted on a server somewhere out there in Internet land.

Quick Review

The terms server and client each have both a hardware and software aspect. The term server is often used to refer both to a piece of computing hardware on which a server application runs and to the server application itself. A good definition for a server then is any computer used to run one or more server applications as its primary job. A server running a server application is also referred to as a host. The term host extends to any computer running any application. The term client is also used to describe both hardware and software. Client hardware is any computing device that hosts an application that requires or uses the services of a server application. Client software is any application that requires or uses the services provided by a server application.




Java For Artists(c) The Art, Philosophy, and Science of Object-Oriented Programming
Java For Artists: The Art, Philosophy, And Science Of Object-Oriented Programming
ISBN: 1932504052
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 452

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