Unit 1

Topic: Distributed Information system

❖ What are centralized systems?

In a centralized system, all users are connected to a central network owner or

“server/master”. The central owner stores, processes and distributes the data, which
“clients/slaves” can access. Centralized networks are built around a single, centralized server
node, which stores all the data and handles all data processing. The whole system can be
managed and monitored through the central server. Hence, it has a Single Point of Control.

But this system has important limitations. If the server crashes, the system no longer works
properly and users cannot access the data. Because a centralized system needs a central
owner to connect all the other users and devices, the availability of the network depends on
this owner. Add to that the obvious security concerns that arise when one owner stores and
can access user data, and it’s easy to understand why centralized systems are no longer the
first choice for many organizations.

❖ Advantages of Centralized systems

1. Simple and rapid deployment: A centralized system has simple architecture that is easy to
set up and can be developed quickly.

2. Affordable: A centralized network is relatively affordable due to the single server being
used.

3. Data consistency: Centralizing data leads to the significant level of data consistency.
Database should contain no redundant data. In centralised system this is ensured as all the
data is with the server. Centralized data management ensures that clients have access to the
most up-to-date information. Any employee can update information vital to your company
through this system.
❖ Disadvantages of Centralized systems
1. Limited scalability: If the network experiences traffic spikes beyond what the network was
designed to handle, information bottlenecks may occur, with users further removed from the
central server experiencing increased latency. Furthermore, after a certain point, the server
might collapse. The only way to increase scalability in centralized system is by making
hardware changes to the server like adding more storage, bandwidth, or processing power to
the central server.

2. Higher security risks: Having a single point of failure increases the chances of security
breaches or disruptions from cyber-security threats such as DOS attacks since there is only
one target to attack. If a main server is down, its data may be permanently lost and may
result in a complete system breakdown.

3. Increased downtime: Since centralized networks have a single point of failure, if the main
server crashes, the entire network will likely shut down resulting in increased downtime.

4. Increased starvation: In case of increased downtime, it will take longer to respond to

client’s request which may result in starvation.

5. Difficult server maintenance: Availability of the entire system depends on the central
server, therefore updates to the system have to be done in minimum and non-peak time.

❖ What are distributed systems?

The distributed computing system consists of group of multiple servers that work together to
achieve a common goal and appears as a single system to clients. It doesn’t have a single
central owner. The components in distributed computing are interconnected and help give
the client’s required information.

Failure of independent components does not affect the overall system which results in
higher availability and improved reliability. Distributed systems have evolved to address the
limitations and problems faced by traditional centralized systems such as security, data
storage, and privacy concerns.
Distributed systems have evolved as a result of the limitations of the other systems. With
increasing security, data storage, and privacy concerns, and the constant need for improving
performance, distributed systems are the natural choice for many organizations.

Distributed networks are composed of equal, interconnected nodes, meaning that data
ownership and computational resources are shared evenly across the entire network. The
term “distributed network” is sometimes used to describe a network that is simply
geographically distributed.

❖ Need of Distributed Information systems

Let’s take an example of a web application that is experiencing twice as much workload than
normal. Since the server now has to handle twice many as requests as it previously did, the
performance would start to decline, which the end-users will also notice. One way of dealing
with such an increase in workload is to upgrade the hardware, add more memory and
bandwidth and so on. But what if the workload kept increasing? At a certain point it would
become technically and financially impractical to upgrade the system.
That’s where distributed computing can help users meet their increasing demands. In this,
new servers can be added to work in sync and fulfil the increased demands.

In a nutshell, distributed computing allows different machines to communicate and

coordinate to accomplish common goals. A distributed system is designed to tolerate failure
of individual computers so the remaining computers keep working and provide services to
the users.

❖ Advantages of DIS:

1. Reduced overloading of a single server: The workload can be shared over multiple
machines as each node possesses enough processing power. This reduces the overloading of
a single machine.

2. Extremely scalable: It is much easier to add new servers as the load increases in the
system. It is easy to add and remove nodes from a distributed system without affecting the
performance of the overall system.

3. Higher level of security: In order to carry out malicious attacks in a distributed system, it
would be required to attack a larger number of nodes at the same time.

4. Reliable: There is no central point of failure in distributed systems. With distributed

networks, a node can fail independently without affecting the rest of the system, since the
computational workload will simply be rebalanced among the remaining nodes. The system
can survive even if a node fails in the system. Hence, High fault tolerance.

5. Parallelism: Distributed systems can be designed for parallelism, where multiple

processors divide up a complex problem into sub-problems and solve them independently.

6. Increased speed: When used to implement parallel processing where only goal is to
achieve maximum speed on a single problem, distributed systems can achieve very high
speed as compared to the centralized ones. Dependence on a single server is reduced which
results in higher response rate to the clients.

7. Increased availability and less starvation: Can withstand significant pressure on the
network. All the nodes in the network have the data. Then, the requests are distributed
among the nodes. Therefore, the pressure does not fall on a computer, but on the entire
network. In this case, the total availability of the network is much greater than in the
centralized one. Increased availability will result in less starvation.

8. Cost effective: The initial cost is higher than a traditional system, but because of their
scalability, they quickly become more cost effective.

❖ Examples of Distributed Information systems

1. The best example of a vast, distributed system is the internet itself. 2.

Electronic banking systems

3. Many online shopping sites use distributed systems for online payments
❖ Comparison:

Centralized Systems Distributed Systems

High fault tolerance due to the absence of

Low fault tolerance as the central server acts using a single main server.
as a single point of failure.
Less reliable as if the central server crashes
the system will be unavailable for all the
Low maintenance costs as the system is run clients.
through a single main server. And it is easier
Less throughput as the single server model
to monitor and manage the whole system
will become a bottleneck when keeping up
with increasing client requests. geographical regions.

More reliable as if one server crashes the

The overall system is less complex as the
system as a whole can still survive.
system can be managed through the central
server. Higher throughput as the processing
a single point of failure. Servers can be power is distributed throughout the
added/removed without affecting the system.
overall performance.
The system is more complex as we need to
High maintenance costs because each address replica management and
node in the system comprises varying maintaining consistency.
processing power and distributed across

It can not be scaled after a certain point. Easier to scale according to need.