client-server architecture

Definition

Technology that separates computers and application software into two categories clients, and servers to better employ available computing resources and share data processing loads. A client computer provides the user interaction-facility (interface) and some or all application processing, while the a server computer might provide high-volume storage capacity, heavy data crunching, and/or high resolution graphics. Typically, several client computers are connected through a network (or networks) to a server which could be a large PC, minicomputer, or a mainframe computer. Every computer connected to a website acts as a client while the website's computer acts as a server. Also called client-server environment.