File Sharing Architecture:  

The development of microprocessor, PC and LAN transformed dumb terminals into -smart? clients. This brought a complete change in the computing environment. The client workstations or desktops, with there enhanced capabilities were now responsible for the user interface and execution of the application logic.

The server provided access to computing resources like printers and large hard drives for storing the files. It downloaded the file from the shared location on the server to the client machine. The user application that worked on the data was run on the client and the file was written back to the server. The application had to be installed on each workstation that accessed the file.   In this architecture, resources could be added as and when necessary or desired. Thus, it provided a low cost entry point with flexible arrangement.

The drawback was that application logic was executed on the client and server typically provided files to store data.

It worked fine as long as the volume of data transfer was low and shared usage and content update was low. As the number of online users grew, the network traffic got congested and the file sharing got strained.

Taking into account the demerits of the file server architectures,  the client/ server architecture made its advent.