Server Architectures

Introduction

Before we can do any analysis of the various components of a server, we must first look at some of the application areas that servers handle. These include several different types of applications, such as:

• Web server

• Database access

• Transaction processing systems

• Decision-support systems

• Distributed file services

• High-performance computing

Transaction processing and decision-support applications, along with Web-serving, merit special attention. The nature of transaction-processing and decision-support applications allows us to draw parallels and comparisons between them, but Web servers are of a different nature entirely. So we will first review transaction processing and decision support applications, and then later look at the characteristics ...