Distributed vs. Non-Distributed Computing

Distributed and non-distributed computing has conceptual differences:

• Latency
• Memory access
• Partial failure
• Concurrency

Major problems in distributed computing correspond to this differences:

• Ensuring adequate performance
• Dealing with differences in memory models between local and distributed entities
• Dealing with partial failures and lack of a central resource manager
• Dealing with problems of concurrency

Distributed application interface should reflect its distributed nature. Merging this two models leads to one of the following problems:

• Making local computing looks like distributed makes local computing unnecessary difficult.
• Making distributed computing looks like local leads to the unreliable system.

References:

1. A Note on Distributed Computing (1994)