Advantages of Distributed database

Distributed databases basically provide us the advantages of distributed computing to the database
management domain. Basically, we can define a Distributed database as a collection of multiple
interrelated databases distributed over a computer network and a distributed database
management system as a software system that basically manages a distributed database while
making the distribution transparent to the user.

Distributed database management basically proposed for the various reason from organizational
decentralization and economical processing to greater autonomy. Some of these advantages are as
follows:

1. Management of data with different level of transparency –

Ideally, a database should be distribution transparent in the sense of hiding the details of where
each file is physically stored within the system. The following types of transparencies are basically
possible in the distributed database system:

 Network transparency:
This basically refers to the freedom for the user from the operational details of the network.
These are of two types Location and naming transparency.

 Replication transparencies:
It basically made user unaware of the existence of copies as we know that copies of data
may be stored at multiple sites for better availability performance and reliability.

 Fragmentation transparency:
It basically made user unaware about the existence of fragments it may be the vertical
fragment or horizontal fragmentation.

2. Increased Reliability and availability –

Reliability is basically defined as the probability that a system is running at a certain time whereas
Availability is defined as the probability that the system is continuously available during a time
interval. When the data and DBMS software are distributed over several sites one site may fail while
other sites continue to operate and we are not able to only access the data that exist at the failed
site and this basically leads to improvement in reliability and availability.

3. Easier Expansion –
In a distributed environment expansion of the system in terms of adding more data, increasing
database sizes, or adding more data, increasing database sizes or adding more processor is much
easier.

4. Improved Performance –
We can achieve interquery and intraquery parallelism by executing multiple queries at different sites
by breaking up a query into a number of subqueries that basically executes in parallel which basically
leads to improvement in performance.
Disadvantages of Distributed DBMS

Distributed Database Systems is a kind of DBMS where databases are present at different locations
and connected via a network. Each site in a Distributed Database is capable of accessing and
processing local data as well as remote data. Although, distributed DBMS is capable of effective
communication and data sharing still it suffers from various disadvantages are as following below.

1. Complex nature :
Distributed Databases are a network of many computers present at different locations and
they provide an outstanding level of performance, availability, and of course reliability.
Therefore, the nature of Distributed DBMS is comparatively more complex than a centralized
DBMS. Complex software is required for Distributed DBMS. Also, It ensures no data
replication, which adds even more complexity in its nature.

2. Overall Cost :
Various costs such as maintenance cost, procurement cost, hardware cost,
network/communication costs, labor costs, etc, adds up to the overall cost and make it
costlier than normal DBMS.

3. Security issues:
In a Distributed Database, along with maintaining no data redundancy, the security of data
as well as a network is a prime concern. A network can be easily attacked for data theft and
misuse.

4. Integrity Control:
In a vast Distributed database system, maintaining data consistency is important. All changes
made to data at one site must be reflected on all the sites. The communication and
processing cost is high in Distributed DBMS in order to enforce the integrity of data.

5. Lacking Standards:
Although it provides effective communication and data sharing, still there are no standard
rules and protocols to convert a centralized DBMS to a large Distributed DBMS. Lack of
standards decreases the potential of Distributed DBMS.

6. Lack of Professional Support:

Due to a lack of adequate communication standards, it is not possible to link different
equipment produced by different vendors into a smoothly functioning network. Thu several
good resources may not be available to the users of the network.

7. Data design complex:

Designing a distributed database is more complex compared to a centralized database.
Architecture Model of Distributed Database Management System (DDBMS)

Architecture Models for DDBMSs (or more generally for multiple DBMSs) can be classified along
three dimensions:

1. – Autonomy

2. – Distribution

3. – Heterogeneity

1. Distribution − It states the physical distribution of data across the different sites.

2. Autonomy − It indicates the distribution of control of the database system and the degree to
which each constituent DBMS can operate independently.

3. Heterogeneity − It refers to the uniformity or dissimilarity of the data models, system

components and databases.
 Architectural Models

Some of the common architectural models are

1. Client - Server Architecture for DDBMS

2. Peer - to - Peer Architecture for DDBMS

3. Multi - DBMS Architecture

1. Client - Server Architecture for DDBMS

This is a two-level architecture where the functionality is divided into servers and clients. The server
functions primarily encompass data management, query processing, optimization and transaction
management. Client functions include mainly user interface. However, they have some functions like
consistency checking and transaction management.
The two different client - server architecture are −

 Single Server Multiple Client

 Multiple Server Multiple Client

2. Peer- to-Peer Architecture for DDBMS

In these systems, each peer acts both as a client and a server for imparting database services. The
peers share their resource with other peers and co-ordinate their activities.
This architecture generally has four levels of schemas −

 Global Conceptual Schema – Depicts OR represent the global logical view of data.

 Local Conceptual Schema – Depicts OR represent logical data organization at each site.

 Local Internal Schema – Depicts OR represent physical data organization at each site.

 External Schema – Depicts OR represent user view of data.

3. Multi - DBMS Architectures

This is an integrated database system formed by a collection of two or more autonomous database
systems.
Multi-DBMS can be expressed through six levels of schemas −

 Multi-database View Level − Depicts multiple user views comprising of subsets of the
integrated distributed database.

 Multi-database Conceptual Level − Depicts integrated multi-database that comprises of

global logical multi-database structure definitions.
  Multi-database Internal Level − Depicts the data distribution across different sites and
multi-database to local data mapping.

 Local database View Level − Depicts public view of local data.

 Local database Conceptual Level − Depicts local data organization at each site.

 Local database Internal Level − Depicts physical data organization at each site.

There are two design alternatives for multi-DBMS −

 Model with multi-database conceptual level.

 Model without multi-database conceptual level.