Distributed

In the context of information technology and general application, 'distributed' describes something spread or allocated across multiple locations, entities, or components, rather than centralized in one place. This could be data, processing power, tasks, or even physical objects. The core characteristic is that responsibility or resources are not concentrated in a single point of control, allowing for greater scalability, fault tolerance, and often, improved performance. A Distributed system often involves communication and coordination between its various parts, employing protocols to manage data consistency, concurrency, and failure detection. The concept is fundamental to modern cloud computing, blockchain technology, and numerous other applications that require handling large amounts of data or providing services to a wide audience.

Distributed meaning with examples

• The company implemented a Distributed database system to handle the rapidly growing volume of customer data. This allowed for faster query times and reduced the risk of data loss compared to the previous centralized solution. The data was now split and saved on multiple servers, helping with redundancy and increased overall performance of the system, along with better handling of traffic.
• To ensure high availability, the software was designed as a Distributed application. If one server failed, the remaining servers could continue to function seamlessly, ensuring minimal disruption to users. The application components were separated and run on various machines allowing the app to be online the vast majority of the time. This ensured uninterrupted services.
• The project team adopted a Distributed project management approach, assigning different team members to various tasks and locations. Each team member had clear responsibilities and was able to work efficiently without being hindered by proximity. This enabled teams to focus on tasks with better results.
• The organization chose to employ a Distributed ledger technology (blockchain) to manage its supply chain. This created transparency and accountability, making it extremely difficult to tamper with records. This removed any central point of failure or manipulation of records.