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Fallacies of Distributed Computing

Understand the key false assumptions known as the fallacies of distributed computing, which reveal typical misconceptions about network reliability, latency, bandwidth, security, topology, and time synchronization. This lesson helps you grasp why these fallacies occur and how they impact the design of distributed systems, preparing you to build more robust and realistic distributed architectures.

The difference in developing software for distributed systems

Distributed systems are subject to many more constraints than software systems that run on a single computer. As a result, the development of software for distributed systems is also very different. However, those who are new to distributed systems make assumptions based on their experience with software development for systems that run on a single computer. Of course, this creates a lot of problems down the road in the systems they build.

To eliminate this confusion and help people build better systems, L Peter Deutsch and others at Sun Microsystems created a collection of these false assumptions. These are the fallacies of distributed computing.

Fallacies

There are eight such fallacies of distributed computing. The following illustration lists them.

As you progress through the course, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of why these statements are fallacious.

However, ...