Computing Technologies: Servers

Earlier Article: Cloud Computing: Basic Concepts

A server is a computer that serves information to other computers. These computers, called clients, can connect to a server through either a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), such as the Internet

From a hardware perspective, a server is a computer (Hardware) or device on a network dedicated to run one or more services (as a host), to serve the needs of the users of other computers on a network.

However in the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the server performs some computational task on behalf of "clients." The clients either run on the same computer, or they connect through the network.

Servers are often dedicated, meaning that they perform no other tasks besides their server tasks. On multiprocessing operating systems, however, a single computer can execute several programs at once. A server in this case could refer to the program that is managing resources rather than the entire computer.

Essentially it is not the size of a computer system that makes it a server. It is in-fact based on the function that it provides. Any computer system that provides some sort of service can be referred to as a server.

Types of Servers

Based on the nature of service they provide, there are many types of servers which are in use. Some of them are given as follows:

File server

This is a computer and storage device dedicated to storing files. Any user on the network can store files on the server.

Print server

This is a computer that manages one or more printers.

Network server

This is a computer that manages network traffic.

Database server

This is a computer system that processes database queries.

Application Server

This is a program that handles all application operations between users and an enterprise's backend business applications or databases.

Web Servers

Web servers are computers that deliver (serves up) web pages. Every web server has an IP address and possibly a domain name. Say, if we enter the URL http://www.thakurani.in/ in our browser, this sends a request to the Web server whose domain name is thakurani.in . The server then fetches the home page named and sends it to our browser. Any computer can be turned into a Web server by installing server software and connecting the machine to the Internet.

Mail Server

Mail servers move and store mail over corporate networks.

Let's take a look at a recent case study in relation to the usage of servers:

The Indian Rayon unit of the Aditya Birla Nuvo group is the second largest producer of Viscose Filament Yarn (VFY) in India, in terms of its market share. But, with the financial crisis, there was pressure on the IT team to contain costs. The best way to do that was to consolidate its servers. They conducted a study on the different servers being used and their deployment and based on study consolidated the servers as required thereby eliminating redundancy and reducing cost.

Well, that's all on what servers are. We have discussed client server networking architecture in one of our earlier articles: Client-Server Networking: Function-Based Network Classification, check it out for further reference.

And like always, if you have any concerns, doubts or suggestions just click on ask questions at the left panel of your screen.

Thank You.