Distributed Systems: The Technology that Powers the Internet

What's up with distributed systems?

Imagine that instead of having a single giant computer doing all the work, you have multiple machines working together as a team. That is a distributed system. The magic is that even though they are spread out in different locations, they operate as if they were one.

Everyday Examples: When you search on Google, it's not a machine that is searching for you. It's thousands of servers spread around the world processing your query in parallel. The same happens with Bitcoin: the network is decentralized, each node has a copy of the blockchain and they all collaborate to validate transactions.

Advantages that cannot be missed

Scalability: You need more processing power. Easy, just add more nodes to the network. Centralized servers cannot do that as easily.

Fault tolerance: If a node goes down, the system continues to function. This is the opposite of having a single server that, if it crashes, goodbye application.

Better performance: The work is divided among many machines, so everything is faster.

The Complicated Rolls

Everything sounds good, but it has its complexities. Coordinating that all nodes do what they need to do is complicated. What happens if two nodes want to access the same resource at the same time? This creates synchronization issues that can lead to deadlocks.

Moreover, maintaining these systems is more expensive and requires people who know what they are doing.

The main types

Client-Server: The classic. You send a request, the server responds. This is how most websites work.

Peer-to-Peer (P2P): All nodes are equal, there is no boss. BitTorrent uses this. It is the opposite of centralized.

Distributed databases: Data is spread across multiple machines but works as one. Giant social media platforms use this.

Distributed computing: Several computers solving complex problems together. It is widely used in scientific research.

Key features that define everything

• Concurrency: Many processes running at the same time
• Horizontal scalability: You add more machines when you need them.
• Security: Protected against unauthorized access
• Data consistency: Data remains synchronized even with simultaneous updates.
• Transparency: The user is unaware of the complexity behind the scenes.

The future is already here

Cluster computing and grid computing are revolutionizing big data processing. As hardware costs decrease, we will see more applications using these models.

In blockchain specifically, miners are already using grid computing to connect resources and solve mathematical problems faster than working alone. It is pro-level distributed mining.

Bottom line: Distributed systems are not the future; they are already in your phone when you use social networks, in your cloud email, in every search you make. The technology that powers the internet is distributed, and it will become more and more important.