Distributed Processing
Distributed processing is when processing is split up
over multiple servers or computers. I
chose to research this more because in the previous chapters, the emphasis was
in cutting cost by consolidating computing and database. I remember thinking
during the readings that it seemed quite vulnerable to attack and natural
disasters. So I was glad to see in chapter four that that is exactly what is
leading companies to invest in more distributed systems.
The more I research the more advantages I discovered.
Depending on the needs of the company, it can be cheaper to use multiple
cheaper computers than investing in a supercomputer. Reliability is another
advantage of distributed computing. Hardware
glitches and software anomalies can cause single-server processing to
malfunction and fail, resulting in a complete system breakdown. Distributed
data processing is more reliable, since multiple control centers are spread
across different machines. A glitch in any one machine does not impact the
network, since another machine takes over its processing capability. Faulty
machines are quickly isolated and repaired. This makes distributed data
processing more reliable than single-server processing systems [1]. Speed
is another advantage of distributed processing, as more computers are added, it
gets faster and faster. Single computers
are limited in their performance and efficiency. An easy way to increase
performance is by adding another computer to a network. Adding yet another
computer will further augment performance, and so on. Distributed data
processing works on this principle and holds that a job gets done faster if
multiple machines are handling it in parallel, or synchronously. Complicated
statistical problems, for example, are broken into modules and allocated to
different machines where they are processed simultaneously. This significantly
reduces processing time and improves performance [1].
(Shore Tech Systems developed A distributed processing program for
Sys Consulting LTD that reduced total processing time per job from 2 minutes to
10 seconds.[2])
Distributed Processing also opens the opportunity for
people to support causes such as cancer research by doing nothing more than
allowing their computer to be included in the distributed efforts of research
groups. World Community Center Grid[3]
is a website that enables people to donate unused computer time to aid in there
various efforts. In 2003, with grid
computing, in less than three months scientists identified 44 potential treatments
to fight the deadly smallpox disease. Without the grid, the work would have
taken more than one year to complete.[4]
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