The Client-Server paradigm is the most prevalent model for distributed computing protocols. It is the basis of all distributed computing paradigms at a higher level of abstraction. It is service-oriented and employs a request-response protocol.

A server process, running on a server host, provides access to a service. A client process, running on a client host, accesses the service via the server process. The interaction of the process proceeds according to a protocol.

The primary idea of a client/server system is that you have a central repository of information—some kind of data, often in a database—that you want to distribute on demand to some set of people or machines.