Fallacies of Distributed Systems

In this article, we will discover the common mistakes that people make when dealing with distributed systems. From assuming the network is always reliable to thinking that problems happen rarely, these misconceptions can cause big issues. We will learn how to avoid these pitfalls and make your systems stronger.

Let's see what are the different Fallacies of Distributed Systems:

Fallacy 1: The Network is Reliable

The deadliest mistake made in networks running distributed systems is the belief that the network will always be working without any problems.

• Networks are inherently vulnerable to various failures, such as drops in packets, delays, and a loss of connection. These conditions can be generated by hardware breakdowns, software issues, or physical disruptions.
• Making the adaptation of a mechanism that is flexible, reliable, and has proper retry and redundancy features for the same reason is the only option for risk reduction.

Fallacy 2: Latency is Zero

The statement that the collected data is instantaneously transferred across the networks has no real representation.

• The latency factor is attributed to multiple causes, such as the distance from and to the destination, network congestion, and, at last, processing delays.
• Since distributed systems depend on data transfer paths, which a high latency can affect often, designers need to consider them with a view to using techniques such as caching and asynchronous communications in order to minimize the latency.

Fallacy 3: Bandwidth is Infinite

In contrast, unlimited bandwidth can only connect the first few customers because, by the time it reaches the entire town, the consumers will have already received the product.

• Around the world, bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred during the same period over the network path. In the case of high-tempo applications, it can be a rate-limiting factor.
• Relevant bandwidth management factors focused around compression, data encoding, and data prioritization are fundamental to the performance of the system. 

Fallacy 4: The Network is Secure

The network being believed to be an inherently safe one can introduce vulnerabilities in the systems deploying the nodes or does not protect them from their most daring threats.

• Communication networks can be tapped, breached, and become subjects of attacks by unfriendly actors.
• Guaranteeing cyber security involves applying encryption, authentication, and authorization technologies, as well as providing a security audit and patching to maintain data integrity and secrecy.

Fallacy 5: Topology Doesn't Change

A network's topology, which represents the positioning of different entities within a network, is not an isolated element.

• Adaptations to new nodes being added, failures of existing nodes, or configurations being altered are regular incidents.
• Systems tend to deal with transient topologies using routing techniques, load balancing, and self-healing, which helps to keep the system in an optimal performance and reliability mode.

Fallacy 6: There is One Administrator

The idea of having one control center responsible for deploying the decentralized system all over is impracticable.

• Distributed systems usually operate across multiple administrative territories, and there cannot be uniform policies and management practices relating to all the systems.
• These areas need to be coordinated, making channels of communication unambiguous, protocols uniform, and leadership structures shared.

Fallacy 7: Transport Cost is Zero

Not being careful with the location of data may result in overcompensations and inefficiencies. Transmission costs that are a result of network bandwidth usage and power consumption are factors to be reckoned with in the system design. Data traffic streamlining, pointless cost cuts, and resource-friendly infrastructure are the key factors in good management of transport expenses.

Fallacy 8: The Network is Homogeneous

Networks are typically built from a variety of elements, which may be different in the way they are configured, operate, and perform.

• Designing systems assuming full homogeneity could result in a lot of problems in terms of performance and compactibility.
• It is essential for designs based on the foundation of diversity in terms of flexible and adaptable system properties to assure robustness in the case of distributed systems.

Fallacy 9: The System is Monolithic

Distributed systems, in principle, consist of multiple interacting elements forming a separate and complex system as opposed to one monolithic entity. Modules have this ability, facilitating their assembly and customization for different applications, but require meticulous management of component interactions, dependencies, and integration points to maintain overall system uniformity and performance. 

Fallacy 10: The System is Fully Observable

Achieving perfect listening to all distributed system components is really very difficult because of their inherent complexity and size.

• Transparency in system state and behavior could be low for monitoring purposes. Debugging processes and performance tuning could also be difficult.
• Proper logging, noticing, and tracing processes with robust tools are some of the methods that would increase observability, helping with monitoring and troubleshooting.

Fallacy 11: The System is Always On

Contemporary stateful systems won't have the status of being downtime-free or load-served around the clock. Scheduled maintenance, system spontaneous failures, and network matters can all result in downtime periods. Adequate architecture design, including redundancy, failover, and robust disaster recovery plans, is central to preventing unexpected service interruptions.

Fallacy 12: There is One Root Cause

Trying to ascertain that the issues in the distributed systems have one deep cause leads to a waste of time and could lead to substantial losses. Distributed systems are very interactive, and this often leads to multiple and associated causes of failure, which makes it difficult to determine the exact cause. It is necessary to have a variety of analytic tools and methodologies that enable pinpointing a number of different contributing factors for a complete and effective failure investigation.

Fallacy 13: Failures are Rare

Not only over- or under-evaluating the frequency of failures impairs disaster planning and response, but also underestimation. Critical failures can happen frequently in networks based on node dispersal, hard and software inventory, as well as network issues. Making systems survivable, e.g., with duplicate capacity, failover, and robust error correction, should be one of the priorities for making the best leverage of the recurring failure paradigm.