Chapter 2: Servers

Chapter 2: Servers

Economies of Scale

As discussed in the previous chapter , local area networks are a method of allowing the users of personal computers and workstations to have shared access to data and resources such as storage, input/output, and communications devices. In this chapter, the concept of shared access to resources will be discussed in greater detail. Both the advantages of shared access and some of the outstanding problems will be explored.

When local area networks first came into use about twenty years ago, disks were quite expensive, and the cost-per-bit for large disks was substantially lower than that of small disks. Therefore, it was worthwhile for several personal computers to have some of their larger files stored on a common, large disk that was accessible over a local area network. A few companies even offered ?diskless workstations? where all disk storage was remote and shared. Now that large capacity disks can be purchased for costs comparable to that of a network connection, shared access to large disks is no longer done for economy of scale, but rather for shared access to the data stored thereon. In addition, shared disks are frequently cared for by someone who will perform periodic backups.

In the same fashion as disks, high-quality, high-performance laser printers were initially shared to gain economies of scale. While they, too, have dropped radically in price, they remain quite bulky and for most applications are infrequently used. Thus, shared access to laser printers remains common, both to...

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Local Area Networks: An Introduction to the Technology

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