ABSTRACT
The term client/server has become the buzzword of the 1990s. Just about every software and hardware company in the world is claiming to be client/server oriented, selling client/server products, or producing reports on what client/server is. Having been involved in what is referred to as client/server technology for a number of years, the author of this chapter has seen many successful and unsuccessful implementations. Though client/server architecture can be very complex, organizations have essentially two kinds of client/server infrastructures from which to choose: two-tiered and three-tiered. In a three-tiered architecture, the components are divided into three layers: a presentation layer, an application logic layer, and the data access layer. One of the biggest benefits of a three-tiered architecture is the ability to swap components.
