What are distributed systems and how do they work?

For distributed systems to function, a task must be broken down into smaller subtasks and spread across multiple nodes or computers on a network. These nodes or computers then communicate and work together to complete the task.

The following four steps provide a brief overview of how distributed systems work:

Decentralized components

A distributed system consists of numerous parts or nodes spread over different real or virtual places. These parts can communicate with each other over a network to accomplish a single goal.

Communication

The components of a distributed system can communicate with each other using various protocols and tools, including TCP/IP, HTTP, or message queuing. These protocols allow the nodes to communicate by sending and receiving messages or data.

coordination

In order for the parts of a distributed system to work well together, they must coordinate their actions. Various mechanisms, such as distributed algorithms, consensus protocols or distributed transactions, can be used to achieve this coordination.

Error tolerance

A distributed system should be created with fault tolerance in mind. This means it must be able to handle failures of specific components or nodes without compromising the performance or availability of the entire system. Distributed systems use redundancy, replication, or partitioning strategies to achieve fault tolerance.

An online search engine is an example of a distributed system, as it consists of numerous nodes that perform various functions, including crawling websites, indexing content, and handling user requests. These nodes work together to give users fast and effective search results.

The blockchain — a decentralized ledger that securely and transparently records transactions — is another example of a distributed system. It is distributed because the ledger is stored on multiple nodes in the network, with each node holding a copy of the entire ledger, providing greater transparency, security, and resilience to failures or attacks.