What a Server Actually Is

A server is just a computer running a program that waits for requests and answers them - this guide demystifies the word, the role, and the path from a box under a desk to the cloud.

1. A Computer That's Always On A server is an ordinary computer running a program that waits for requests and answers them - and the client/server model is just one side asking and the other side responding.
2. What Makes It a "Server" A computer earns the name 'server' through how it's run: headless, always-on, reachable at a network address, and running server software that plays the request/response role.
3. From a Box to the Cloud The ladder from a physical server to a virtual machine to a cloud instance to serverless - and why 'the cloud is someone else's computer' is precisely true.