What are Distributed Systems and How do they Work?

The definition of distributed systems 

A distributed system (DS) is a group of computers working together and comprising a single system. Computing devices are located in different places and interact with each other to achieve common goals.

The main advantage of DSs is improved performance, reliability, and availability. This is achieved by sharing the power of different computers to perform various tasks.

A DS consists of nodes, interconnecting networks, and software. Nodes are computers that exchange information through networks. 

The software provides communication, coordination, and resource management services for more efficient and reliable computing. DSs increase the fault tolerance, and scalability of the hardware used, which allows the processing of large amounts of data.

DSs can be used to process large amounts of data: website data, social networks, and applications, storing information on multiple servers providing higher access speeds and less chance of data loss if one server fails. 

They enable distributed computing, where a task is broken down into smaller parts that are processed in parallel on different nodes of the system, which leads to a significant acceleration of computational processes.

The work of distributed systems 

DSs work by dividing tasks into smaller parts and spreading them across multiple nodes or computers on a network that can communicate with each other to achieve a common goal. Various protocols and tools, such as TCP/IP, HTTP, or Message Queues, are available.

DSs are built with fault tolerance in view in order to ensure smooth operation when failures occur in some parts of the system. This is done with reservation, replication, or partitioning strategies.

An example of a DS is blockchain, a decentralized registry that provides a reliable and transparent record of transactions. Each blockchain node contains a copy of the entire registry, which provides greater transparency, security, and resistance to failure or attack.

The key features of distributed systems

DSs are used in various fields such as social networking, cloud computing, and online commerce. They allow multiple processes or threads to run simultaneously due to parallelism, which makes the system more efficient.

A feature of DSs is their scalability. In order to cope with increasing workloads and serve more users, systems must be able to expand by adding more nodes.

To ensure fault tolerance, it is necessary to consider the possibility of individual nodes or components failing without reducing system performance.

A feature of DS is the heterogeneity, where nodes can have different hardware, software, and network configurations.

DSs are transparent, which means that the resources and services of the entire network are available to consumers. Security is also an important aspect to protect against cyber threats.

Consistency is an important function of DSs. In the event of simultaneous updates and failures, it is necessary to maintain data consistency across many nodes.

Finally, performance plays an important role, allowing for a high level of efficiency despite the increased transmission costs and other complexities associated with distribution.

The various types of distributed systems

There are many different types and designs of DSs that are built to meet specific needs and complexities.

One such system is a client-server architecture, where the server receives requests from the client, processes them, and returns responses. The Web browser acts as the client, and Web pages are stored on the server.

In Peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture, all nodes are equal and can act as clients and servers simultaneously. Each node requests resources and provides them to other nodes, as in the case of BitTorrent.

A distributed database system has an architecture spread across multiple computers or nodes. They all work together to store and manage data. Examples are large-scale applications that require high availability and scalability, such as social networks and online stores.

Multiple computers collaborate in a distributed computing system to solve complex processing problems. This architecture is used for analyzing large amounts of data or modeling complex processes.

Hybrid distributed systems combining multiple architectures or concepts can use P2P design for file sharing and client-server architecture for web queries.

The advantages and disadvantages of distributed systems

• 	<p dir="ltr">Advantages</p>
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DSs have many advantages, such as scalability, fault tolerance, and increased performance. 

Scalability enables the system to serve a large number of users and to manage growing workloads by adding new nodes to the system. 

Fault tolerance allows the system to continue operating even if one node fails, making distributed systems more reliable.

• 	<p dir="ltr">Disadvantages</p>
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However, DSs also have their disadvantages.

Because of the system's complexity and distributed nature, maintaining them requires specialized knowledge and skills, which can lead to increased costs and complexity. 

It is difficult to coordinate communication and ensure consistency between nodes because DSs consist of multiple nodes that may be geographically spread out. This can lead to problems with parallelism and consistency, and create security issues.

The future of distributed systems

The future of DSs looks promising, thanks to advances in technology. Cluster computing and grid computing are two promising technologies that will play an essential role in future distributed systems.

Cluster computing is the use of multiple computers working together as a single system. It improves computing power, reliability as well as scalability. Cluster computing is applied to the processing of large amounts of data and to accelerate artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Grid computing uses distributed resources to work together. This allows the pooling of resources to solve complex problems such as scientific research, data processing, and other large-scale applications.