Client/Server Computing

Thin client 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.

Fat client (also known as rich client or thick client) is a client that performs the bulk of the data processing operations. The data itself is stored on the server.

To overcome the limitations of two-tier architecture, a middle tier server (also called gateway) is added between the user machine (typically a thin client) and the backend servers (database servers)

The middle tier is where the application/business logic of the system resides and it performs a number of different functions like mapping different database queries, integrating results from different data sources and interfacing with backend legacy applications

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