[quote user="smbell"]I"m not sure I get this. Was he actually asking where you guys have Google installed on your internal systems? As in www.google.com, the search engine, installed locally??? That can't be it.
[/quote]
Yes, it's more like that.
Where is the code running ?
Is it on a database ? Or somewhere in a tube ? Or on the local machine ?
Alright, I'm still not specific. Here's more on the thought process of the individual (including some light on our app) -
Our product is a client-server app. Most of the business logic is present in the client tier while the server tier has some business validation logic (to enforce data integrity) and a whole lot of stored procedures to ensure that related tables (running into hundreds) will be updated without any complex code at the client end.
The person in question, has trouble understanding that any code can be layered into tiers.
If I were to give this person an example of a two tier app say Microsoft Office (ok it's not two tiered but bear with me), then he/she would ask me another question -
"Ok, you're running Office. Which is Office - the client or the server ? How can the entire thing be Microsoft Office ? You're running Office on the local PC, so it should be something else running on the server , right? ".
At this point, you may interrupt by saying the usual - "No!! no!! Even the code running on the server is a part of Office!!".
And then you have to deal with some more brain-bashing from him/her, on the lines of - "Ok, Microsoft Office is running on the server. Now what is this (pointing to the client app) that we are running on the local system. Is that a different software ?"