Distributed Systems
Geoffrey Banks
POS/355
Paul Rouk
April 15, 2013
Distributed Systems
According to Andrew Tanenbaum “A distributed system is a collection of computers that appear to its users as a single coherent system.” (http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/alanko/hj/K06/kalvokopiot/ch1_p6.pdf) Almost every current company uses distributed systems connected to servers and even larger databases. Each of these companies connects their organization and its information through local area networks also connected through server farms managed by administrators. Server side operating systems provide the server or database administrator to manage use on different computers that share information. We use distributed systems to not only make information available on different devices but so that the total system speed is enhanced by the use of multiple processors. Each of those processors is computing individual processes separately so that instead of having one really large set of processors on a server computing commands those same commands are being processed separately on a device that’s almost as fast. At a restaurant that utilizes multiple computers placed strategically throughout the restaurant operate separately but share information on a central server. The Internet is probably the largest single example of a heterogeneous distributed system available. The difference between a distributed system and centralized is the problem of the information being managed on a central CPU. A CPU no matter how many processors it contains is limited to output a certain amount of information. If you look at it like water or sand through a filter the components have a higher probability of bottlenecking when too much information is attempting to be pushed through. This comes at a sacrifice of either time or incorrect data. The first problem with distributed systems is scalability. Distributed systems are usually implemented as a solution to a business challenge. For instance, when an issue
POS/355
Paul Rouk
April 15, 2013
Distributed Systems
According to Andrew Tanenbaum “A distributed system is a collection of computers that appear to its users as a single coherent system.” (http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/alanko/hj/K06/kalvokopiot/ch1_p6.pdf) Almost every current company uses distributed systems connected to servers and even larger databases. Each of these companies connects their organization and its information through local area networks also connected through server farms managed by administrators. Server side operating systems provide the server or database administrator to manage use on different computers that share information. We use distributed systems to not only make information available on different devices but so that the total system speed is enhanced by the use of multiple processors. Each of those processors is computing individual processes separately so that instead of having one really large set of processors on a server computing commands those same commands are being processed separately on a device that’s almost as fast. At a restaurant that utilizes multiple computers placed strategically throughout the restaurant operate separately but share information on a central server. The Internet is probably the largest single example of a heterogeneous distributed system available. The difference between a distributed system and centralized is the problem of the information being managed on a central CPU. A CPU no matter how many processors it contains is limited to output a certain amount of information. If you look at it like water or sand through a filter the components have a higher probability of bottlenecking when too much information is attempting to be pushed through. This comes at a sacrifice of either time or incorrect data. The first problem with distributed systems is scalability. Distributed systems are usually implemented as a solution to a business challenge. For instance, when an issue
Bibliography: * Krzyzanowski, Paul. "A Taxonomy of Distributed Systems." www.cs.rutgers.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2012.; <http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~pxk/rutgers/notes/content/01-intro.pdf>. * Tanenbaum, van Steen: Distributed Systems, Principles and Paradigms; Prentice Hall 2002; Web site: www.prenhall.com/tanenbaum