What Server farm is
A group of networked servers that are housed in one location in order to streamline internal processes, distributing the workload between the individual components. In other words, a server farm expedites computing processes by harnessing the power of multiple servers. The farms rely on load-balancing software that tracks demand for processing power from different machines, prioritizes the tasks, and schedules and reschedules them depending on the priority and demand that users put on the network. When one server in the farm fails, another can step in as a backup.
Combining servers and processing power into a single entity has been relatively common for many years in research and academic institutions. Today, more and more companies are utilizing server farms to handle the enormous amount of computerized tasks and services they require.
The meaning of Server
A host computer on a network. It houses information and responds to requests for information (for example, it houses Web sites and executes their links to other Web sites). The term "server" also refers to the software that makes the act of "serving information" possible. Commerce servers, for example, use software to run the main functions of an e-commerce Web site, such as product display, online ordering, and inventory management (you'll also hear this described as shopping cart technology). A server is the control computer on a LAN, meaning it controls the software, access to printers, and other parts of the network (usually accompanied by workstations that "share the load"). A server may be dedicated (where its sole purpose is to be the server) or non-dedicated (where in addition to being the server, it can be used for basic computing purposes).
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