What is the fundamental difference between a fat-client and a thin-client approach to client server systems architectures?

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Computers and Technology

Dakota Harrington

27 November, 10:56

What is the fundamental difference between a fat-client and a thin-client approach to client server systems architectures?

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Justin Blake · Answer 1

Client server architecture

In this set up, the servers are workstations which perform computations or provide services such as print service, data storage, data computing service, etc. The servers are specialized workstations which have the hardware and software resources particular to the type of service they provide.

Examples

1. Server providing data storage will possess database applications.

2. Print server will have applications to provide print capability.

The clients, in this set up, are workstations or other technological devices which rely on the servers and their applications to perform the computations and provide the services and needed by the client.

The client has the user interface needed to access the applications on the server. The client itself does not performs any computations while the server is responsible and equipped to perform all the application-level functions.

The clients interact with the server through the internet.

Clients can be either thin client or thick (fat) client.

The differences in them are described below.

1. Thin client, as per the name, performs minimal processing. Thick or fat client has the computational ability necessary for the client.

2. The thin client possesses basic software and peripherals and solely relies on the sever for its functionalities. Fat client has the resources needed to do the processing.

3. The user interface provided by the thin client is simpler and not rich in multimedia. The user interface provided by the fat client is much better and advanced.

4. Thin client relies heavily on the server. Fat client has low dependency on the server.

5. In the thin client set up, servers are present in more number. In this set up, servers are present in less number.

6. Each server handles a smaller number of thin clients since all the processing is done at the server end. Each server handles more thick clients since less processing is done at the server end.