Client Server

The idea bulb switches on in weird places at times... Today was one such day! 7:50AM when I was taking bath and out of nowhere this concept of client-server architecture sat in my mind. Nothing technical... but just the term came in and I started thinking; correlating the concepts of management and technology (of course was taking bath in parallel :D ...)

In a classical Client–server model, the client is the requestor and the server is the service provider. The same thing applies to a typical service design model. The clients are the ones with requirements and the servers act as knowledge / analytics base and service the request.

At the management level, there are innumerable number of parameters which contribute to design thinking. In the due course of dealing with all these parameters one gets lost in the thought that the client is the boss (more widely used as 'Customer is the King'). Really? What if the server (service provider) goes down? Will it not disrupt the client? :) ... But this isn't the way it works in the technology front. You have counter strategies which are much easy to deal with and feasible to work out. This lead to conceptualising this (w)hole thought into a new addition to the list of oxymorons. The first thought which came into my mind was whether these concepts qualify to be a pair of oxymoron. Yes, a pair of it - Client-Server wrapped under Technology and Management concepts. So mathematically speaking a second degree oxymoron...

The Bangalore traffic then let me have a different perception though :). Is it really the case?? Are there any similarities (a 180 deg phase shift... :P) between the conepts in technology and management? Hmm... In a technical arena, what happens when a server goes down? A reboot? Replacement? Revamp? ... many ways to counter it... So basically, a backup strategy is planned. What happens in a management arena? What if a service provider brings the shutters down? Will it be an end to the client operations? Not really, a service doesn't shut down over night. There will be a phase of transition and handover where the incumbent is paid to work. It may be no loss no gain scenario for the incumbent but this means that a backup strategy exists. Of course there are other parameters of legal, ethical & blah associated to make the situation more complex...

So what have I arrived at as I walk in to office in the morning?? A confused state of mind? A don't care attitude for the day? A 'What the hell!' feeling? ... Well... a happy state that I atleast was able to continue the thought that originated early in the morning and have a logical conclusion. They aren't oxymorons after all. They are similar concepts dealt under different situations at different levels of complexity...