What is the difference between computer networks and distributed databases?

Answer 1

A distributed system shares the work to be done among several computers. There is usually a control process that manages all of the various sub processes to ensure they are performed in the proper sequence. Although these computers are networked together, the network is usually unavailable to other systems and users; and it is usually extremely fast.

A computer network allows computers on the same network to communicate with each other. There is no indication these computers will share any work simply because they have been networked together.

Difference between a network and a distributed system lies with the software(especialy the operating system)rather thanwith the hardware.

from 'tanenbum'

sender:Priyanka singh,davv indore

Answer 2

Without knowing the context the simple answer is that a distributed database is one which is distributed over two or more computers whilst the computer network is the transmission medium between the computers over which the data passes.

Answer 3

Straightforward and simple:

A computer network: is simply more than one computer connected through hardware, and comunicate through some kind of protocol which allows the transfer of data and commands and services.

Distributed computing: is simply when more than one computer do a job which one womputer could problably do itself (albeit slower).

My intellectual masterbations to this topic:

There is a large overlap in these two terms. Distributed computing is when more microprocessor computers are doing the job that a macrocomputer (or mainframe) would otherwise do. A cluster, where several microcomputers are sent a job from a controlling computer is an example of distributed computer with a cluster. To do any kind of distributed computing efectivly however you are going to need a network, so that data may be passed from computer to computer and from omputer group to computer group.

Sometimes to network effectively, however you need computer/s which is/are handling services on the network. Theoretically, this could be one mainframe handling services for a whole bunch of desktop computers. However mainframes are expensive, and microcomputers are real workhorses nowadays, this means for a low cost network you can just hook different microcomputers running different services together and get a type of distributed computing.

as an elaboration:

A computer network may inherently describe some kind of distributed computing capability.

services on a network may be centralized or distributed across the network. If I plug two windows 98 machines together through a loopback cable, they can talk to each other through TCP/IP or IPX and they are. Here, because all of the computers on the network have the same services running, which in theory could be handled from one central server, for this reason you could call this distributed computing. However normal people call this a computer network.

If however I am at a university, I may have one microcoputer that handles the webpages of my department, another computer that authenticates and gives access to the users data, and another computer that handels the emails. These computers are all linked by a network, and the jobs that they do may be somewhat dependant on the jobs of the other computers on this university network, however all of these computers are doing basically different jobs and giving me different services. The gag however is that one computer could do all of these jobs. Because of this, what I would normally call a computer network, is also distributed computing. Normal people would also usually call this a deptartment network.

Distributed computing is however more pertinent in another context. If I have a job which I would normally only run on a Supercomputer with 16 processors and huge raid arrays, like a molecule modelling job, I cannot do this at home or really on any desktop computer. Even on the fastest single processor Pentium 4/ 64bit optron / Xeon etc. this job might take 6 or 7 hours, however if I have a computing cluster of 4 pentiums this job might however only take 2 hours. This means I can run my model 3 times in one day because of these pentiums with their distributed computing jobs. This is VERY important if you are paying your personel by the hour. Also the cost of the hardware is usually significantly less than that which one would pay for the same performance in a macrocomputer or mainframe.

Answer 4

A stand alone computer has its own hard drive. It is limited to files and programs contained within itself. A networked computer can have access to other computer's files and may store information in a remote location.

Answer 5

Computer networks are networks of computers, network computing is the act of using a computer on a network.