Client/Server is a scalable architecture whereby each computer or process on the network is either a client or a server. Server software generally but not always runs on powerful computers dedicated for exclusive use to running the business application. Client software on the other hand generally runs on common PCs or workstations. Clients get all or most of their information and rely on the application server for things such as configuration files, stock quotes, business application programs or to offload compute intensive application tasks back the server to keep the client computer (and client computer user) free to perform other tasks.

A popular client in widespread use today is the web browser which communicates with web servers over the internet to fetch and display web page content. Another type of client in the Client/Server architecture is known as a thin client, which is a minimal client. Thin clients utilize as few resources on the host PC as possible. A thin client's job is generally just to graphically display information from the application server. This allows a company the ease of managing their business logic for all applications at a central location. Application servers usually store data on a third machine, known as the database server.