Recommended for any of the following reasons

  • Security is a major concern
  • Network management from a server is desired
  • The network is seeing heavy traffic
  • The network is out of control
  • Expansion is on the horizon

What is it?  Client/server is a computational architecture that involves client processes requesting service from server processes e.g. your billing program resides on the Server but multiple users interact with the database.

Pros

  • Easy to manage  (with technicial expertise)
  • Offers greaty security
  • Better traffic control
  • Things are just better organized
  • Network expansion is easier

Cons

  • Requires a higher level of technicial expertise than a simple workgroup
  • You can go overboard with security and make users miserable
  • If you have only one server and it goes down the impact is high

Overall:  If security is a major concern or you have 9+ computers, client server is the way to go.