What are distributed computer systems and why is it relevant ?
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Single computers have limits:
– A single computer has limited processing speed.
– A single computer has limits to the speed and capacity of its disk, memory, and network connections.
– A single computer is located in a single physical place in a specific building, city, and country.
– A single computer might break or malfunction.
Many businesses, organizations, etc. use multiple computers because they are frustrated with these limits.
“Distributed systems” is a field of computer science. Distributed systems is the study of the theoretical properties and practical engineering problems you see when you try to use multiple computer systems.
You need to be pretty smart to work in the field. You have to basically plan how isolated computers in different locations each make their own decisions, while possibly being unaware of what other computers are doing.
There’s a famous theoretical limit to distributed systems, called the CAP Theorem. It stands for Consistency, Availability, Partition Tolerance. And the theorem says that a distributed system can only ever have two of these properties.
If you’re a good distributed systems engineer, you can have your pick of some of the best jobs in the computer industry. Every famous high-paying prestigious tech company, and every red-hot blockchain startup, is always on the lookout for distributed systems people.
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