CLIENT/SERVER ENVIRONMENT

Client/server environment

Client/server environment

Client/server is the combination of three major technologies: Relational database management systems (RDBMSs), networks, and client interfaces. Clients execute specific local tasks with local resources. Servers provide shared resources and fulfill broad tasks. Communication enables definition and completion of full work processes.

Simply put, client/server computing is organizing an information system as a co-operating group of independent, modular subsystems. What's new about this, you ask? It's the way people have always worked: Everyone has his specialty, and groups of people work together to accomplish an overall task. But until recently, this is not the way information systems have worked. Take airline reservation systems, for example. Designed decades ago, they operate on the principle of a huge central computer system that handles all the tasks involved in booking an airline seat: maintaining the database of available seats, administering booking procedures, and even arranging each character of text on many thousands of reservation terminals worldwide. The Problems of Monolithic Design The idea of "centralized" systems was developed when computing power was expensive and hard to install outside of a "glass house" computer room. Centralized design makes a single computer a "jack of all trades," sharing its time and resources between many tasks and many users. What's wrong with this "monolithic" approach? Let's look at two problems that directly affect call center operations. The first problem is that ease-of-use often suffers. In the call center, the user is the service rep. To make the CSR more productive, we would like the system to be easy to use. The ideal would be a system so straightforward that no training was necessary. But this kind of user interface takes computer power to manage the kind of computer power that is cheap to provide on the desktop, but expensive to provide from a central site. The second problem is our ability to change the system to adapt to new business practices or campaigns. We'd even like CSR's on different projects or with different duties to have interfaces customized to their work. But central systems are more difficult to change, because changes affect everyone and must therefore be painstakingly designed and thoroughly tested. The next time you check in for an airline flight, peek over the counter and look at the reservation system screen. You'll see the consequences of a monolithic, centralized system design: a cryptic interface that was chosen to optimize central computing and network resources, but which requires extensive training before an agent can be productive.

Client/Server software Infrastructure

With competing paradigms-SQL databases, TP monitors, groupware, and distributed objects-the middleware that connects clients to servers has grown dauntingly complex. Client /server are the combination of three major technologies: relational DBMS, networks, and client interface (usually GUI/PC based). Each element contributes to the overall platform with very specific roles but is independent of the others in performing its functions.

Advantages of the Client/Server Environment

Client/server is an open system. The advantages of this environment include: Interoperability, Data integrity, Scalability, Accessibility, Performance, Security, Adaptability, and ...