# A Serverless Web

The existing Web is formed of servers and clients. Clients request data and servers provide it.

The Autonomi Protocol does not use this client-server model. Instead stored data is spread across a network that’s made up of the spare computing resources of contributing users. When a request for some content is made, a message goes out across the Network and machines that hold the constituent parts of that content—the nodes—return them to the requester, the client

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#### **Keeping it Simple**

Autonomi is comprised of its users' machines (nodes) linked together by node software which routes data and messages securely between them. These machines provide the Network's storage by allocating a portion of their hard drives for this purpose—and earning the Network's token currency in return.
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So, the Protocol considers two basic components: [nodes](/how-it-works/fully-autonomous-data-network/nodes.md) and [clients](/how-it-works/fully-autonomous-data-network/clients.md).\
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You don't have to run a node to use the Network any more than you have to run a web server to use the Web. Client software allows users to create a secure, private data store, and browse the Network securely and anonymously without being part of the Network.

A single computer can run both node and client software at the same time.

***

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#### Tell me more!

[Autonomous Network (MaidSafe white paper, 2010)](http://docs.maidsafe.net/Whitepapers/pdf/AutonomousNetwork.pdf)
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