[8] WHY USE DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING UPDATED!
(Part of the CORBA FAQ, Copyright © 1996-99)


[8.1] CAN DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING ENHANCE MY PERFORMANCE?

Distributed computing allows different users or computers to share information. Distributed computing can allow an application on one machine to leverage processing power, memory, or storage on another machine. It is possible that distributed computing could enhance performance of a stand-alone application, but this is often not the reason to distribute an application. Some applications, such as word processing, might not benefit from distribution at all. In many cases, a particular problem might demand distribution. If a company wishes to collect information across locations, distribution is a natural fit. In other cases, distribution can allow performance or availability to be enhanced. If an application must run on a PC and the application needs to perform lengthy calculations, distributing these calculations to faster machines might allow performance to be enhanced.

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[8.2] HOW IS A DISTRIBUTED DATABASE RELATED TO DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING?

A distributed database is a specialization of distributed computing. A distributed database allows certain data specific operations to be distributed to one or more different machines. This means that the decision to perform an operation occurs on one machine and then one or more other machines end up performing the operation. Distributed database operations include searching, updating, and deleting data. Distributed computing operations can be much more varied. They might include performing calculations, scheduling tasks, data transfers, etc.

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[8.3] CAN DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING SOLVE BUSINESS PROBLEMS? UPDATED!

[Recently did some wordsmithing (12/1998). Click here to go to the next FAQ in the “chain” of recent changes]

Yep.

Distributing computing can help solve certain business problems. In today’s business climate, distribution of business processes is common place. A factory might be in one location, sales in another, and marketing in a third. In many cases, the computation associated with the business processes can be distributed along similar lines. Distributed computing can also allow some applications to run faster than if they are implemented within a single process. In these cases, distribution does not mirror real world distribution, but allows additional processing power to be taken advantage of.

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