Types of Computing Environments

A computer system uses many devices, arranged in different ways to solve many problems. This constitutes a computing environment where many computers are used to process and exchange information to handle multiple issues.

The different types of Computing Environments are −

Let us begin with Personal Computing Environment −

Personal Computing Environment

In the personal computing environment, there is a single computer system. All the system processes are available on the computer and executed there. The different devices that constitute a personal computing environment are laptops, mobiles, printers, computer systems, scanners etc.

Time Sharing Computing Environment

The time sharing computing environment allows multiple users to share the system simultaneously. Each user is provided a time slice and the processor switches rapidly among the users according to it. Because of this, each user believes that they are the only ones using the system.

Client Server Computing Environment

In client server computing, the client requests a resource and the server provides that resource. A server may serve multiple clients at the same time while a client is in contact with only one server. Both the client and server usually communicate via a computer network but sometimes they may reside in the same system.

Distributed Computing Environment

A distributed computing environment contains multiple nodes that are physically separate but linked together using the network. All the nodes in this system communicate with each other and handle processes in tandem. Each of these nodes contains a small part of the distributed operating system software.

Cloud Computing Environment

The computing is moved away from individual computer systems to a cloud of computers in cloud computing environment. The cloud users only see the service being provided and not the internal details of how the service is provided. This is done by pooling all the computer resources and then managing them using a software.

Cluster Computing Environment

The clustered computing environment is similar to parallel computing environment as they both have multiple CPUs. However a major difference is that clustered systems are created by two or more individual computer systems merged together which then work parallel to each other.