Introduction
Virtually, every technological breakthrough that mankind comes up with has its advantages and disadvantages. Distributed computing has been a very useful tool in making use of the hardware facilities in any organization. However, as stated, it comes with certain limitations. Distributed computing can be defined as an interconnection of several computers in a network with shared processing facilities and even with file sharing channels. Thus from this definition, a distributed computer system will ensure that computers do not remain idle since users will be able to use their processing capacity remotely. The processing capacities of the various computers in the system are thus shared, and large workloads from one computer can be processed expeditiously. However, a distributed system comes with a coordination nightmare, a number of storage and speed preconditions, security threats and high costs of maintenance especially in cases where the system is serving large government and commercial information programs (Ros, 2010).
Main body
A distributed system obviously comes with more power and capability due to the processing redundancy that it offers. However, in any distributed system, there is a need to either have a coordination mechanism that will ensure that all the computers in the system are synchronized or work towards the reduction of processing time and avoidance of processing bottlenecks. This is normally achieved through the acquisition of server computers and specialized software that perform the aforesaid function. In large government and commercial information programs, powerful servers and reliable software are required in order to coordinate the large number of computers involved in the system as well as the large number of users (Yohannan, 2008, p. 1). This is normally disadvantageous since it is associated with additional costs and the requirement of special skills to maintain such hardware.
In large organizations like government departments that are based within a certain localized area, the use of a local distributed network is normally recommended. This may have a lot of cost implications for the department since the size of the department requires it to have several computers, each with its own faults and maintenance needs. Thus unless the functionalities of the government department or commercial organization require the use of a distributed system, it is more cost effective to have computer systems that are not in a distributed network (Panconesi, 1997, p. 1). To explain this, if a single computer in a distributed system has malfunctioned, this will affect the whole system and thus it will require to be repaired expeditiously to restore the system’s potential.
In a distributed system, especially in a large organization, there is usually the threat of non-uniformity of bandwidths and processing speeds of individual terminal computers. This requires the system to have individually independent data that takes up little memory and bandwidth. It also implies that certain communications must take place between individual computers in a bid to assess the capabilities of the computers to take up certain incoming jobs. This also requires certain calculations involving workload, bandwidth, processing capacities or even memory. When this occurs, communication may be compromised and this will in turn affect the time taken on the calculations. This affects the overall performance of the distributed system. The performance will also be affected by the fact that some terminals may be turned off when their users are not in office (Yohannan, 2008, p. 1).
The greatest drawback of a distributed system is, perhaps, the exposure to security threats that it gives its individual users. The threat to security is mainly because a distributed system is built on an open platform, the internet. The security threat is not only on the individual users using the distributed system but also on the organization as a whole. Thus classified government files may find their way in wrong hands if the government is using a poorly secured distributed system. In the same way, businesses using commercial information systems within a distributed system may get themselves in problems if their systems are not properly secured (Lee, 2007, 1). For instance, data on the operational intelligence of an organization may find its way to the rivals of this organization. This means that the rivals will have an upper hand since they will be able to incorporate the best practices used by their rivals in their operations giving them a strategic advantage over them.
Conclusion
In the discussion above, it is evident that a distributed system has a couple of disadvantages and drawbacks, especially when used in a large organization. Disadvantages such as compromised data security, coordination problems, occasional performance bottlenecks due to non-performing terminals in the system and even high costs of maintenance are thus major issues when operating in a distributed system in a large organization. Despite these issues, distributed systems provide great potential for improvement of overall computing capability of an organization. All an organization has to do is to ensure that the various issues that could bring problems are addressed in time. For instance, the system should be properly secured, the server and related software should be of good quality and they should also be durable and the computers to be used in the network should be serviced with substantial bandwidths and they should also have sufficient storage and processing capacity.
Reference List
Lee, I. (2007). Introduction to Distributed Systems. Web.
Panconesi, A. (1997). Lecture Notes in Theoretical Distributed Computing. Web.
Ros, A. (2010). Parallel and Distributed Computing. Croatia. In-Tech Publishers.
Yohannan, C. (2008). Distributed Computing Advantages, Disadvantages and Alternatives. Web.