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Management Information Systems

Notes
Figure 5.2: A Multitiered Client/Server Network (N-tier)

For instance, at the first level a Web server will serve a Web page to a client in response for a
request for service. Web server software is responsible for locating and managing stored Web
pages. If the client requests access to a corporate system (a product list or price information, for
instance), the request is passed along to an application server. Application server software
handles all application operations between a user and an organization’s back-end business
systems. The application server may reside on the same computer as the Web server or on its
own dedicated computer.
Client/server computing enables businesses to distribute computing work across a number of
smaller, inexpensive machines that cost much less than minicomputers or centralized mainframe
systems. The result is an explosion in computing power and applications throughout the firm.

Notes Novell Netware was the leading technology for client/server networking at the
beginning of the client/server era. Today Microsoft is the market leader, with its Windows
operating systems (Windows Server, Windows XP, Windows 2000), controlling 78 percent
of the local area network market.

Did u know? What is client/server computing?
In client/server computing, desktop or laptop computers called clients are networked to
server computers that provide the client computers with a variety of services and capabilities.

5.2.5 Enterprise Internet Computing Era (1992 to Present)

The success of the client/server model posed a new set of problems for corporations. Many large
firms found it difficult to integrate all of their local area networks (LANs) into a single, coherent
corporate computing environment. Applications developed by local departments and divisions
in a firm, or in different geographic areas, could not communicate easily with one another and
share data.
In the early 1990s, firms turned to networking standards and software tools that could integrate
disparate networks and applications throughout the firm into an enterprise-wide infrastructure.
As the Internet developed into a trusted communications environment after 1995, business
firms began using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networking
standard to tie their disparate networks together.

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