# Server

> A computer whose job is to answer requests from other computers, all day, every day.

- Level: Basic
- Topics: Hardware, Cloud
- URL: https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/server/
- In Spanish: [Servidor](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/es/server/)

A **server** is a computer that provides something to other computers over a network: web pages, email, files, a database, the data behind an app. Your phone or laptop is the **client** that asks; the server is the one that answers. When you open a website, your browser sends a request across the internet and a server somewhere sends the page back.

"Server" describes a role more than a kind of machine. Any computer can act as one, even a Raspberry Pi at home. But machines built for the job look different from a PC: flat boxes stacked in racks inside a data center, with no screen or keyboard, lots of memory, two power supplies in case one fails and disks that can be swapped while they run. They are managed remotely and designed to stay on for years.

The word also names the software. A **web server** is a program that answers web requests, and one physical machine can run many server programs at once or be split into several virtual machines. When people say an app runs "in the cloud", it still runs on servers; they just belong to a provider like AWS, Google Cloud or Azure and are rented by the hour. Even serverless uses servers: you simply do not manage them yourself.

## An analogy

A waiter in a restaurant. Customers, the clients, ask for things and the waiter brings them. One good waiter can look after many tables at once, and when the place gets busy, the restaurant hires more waiters.

## Keep in mind

- A server answers requests from other computers, called clients.
- It is a role: the same word names the machine and the program doing the job.
- Data center servers sit in racks, with no screen, and run nonstop.
- The cloud, and even serverless, still run on servers owned by someone else.

## Go deeper

- [Server (computing) on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_(computing))
- [What is a server? (IBM)](https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/server)

## Related terms

- [Database](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/database/): An organized store of data that programs can search and update safely.
- [Web browser](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/web-browser/): The app that fetches web pages from the internet and draws them on your screen.
- [Internet](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/internet/): A worldwide network of networks that lets any connected device reach any other.
- [Raspberry Pi](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/raspberry-pi/): A cheap, credit-card-sized computer made for learning and tinkering.
- [Data center](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/data-center/): A building full of servers where the internet, the cloud and AI actually run.
- [Virtual machine](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/virtual-machine/): A complete computer made of software, running inside a real one.
- [Cloud computing](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/cloud-computing/): Renting computers over the internet instead of buying your own.
- [Google Cloud](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/google-cloud/): Google's cloud business: computing, storage, data and AI services rented by the hour.