Centralised VS Distributed Database

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Hello,

I need to produce a report for a company who has 12 offices around the country in regards to the possible installation of a distributed IS. The manager has asked me to comment on the issues of installing a distributed IS as opposed to a centralised one. Someone asked him why he wasn't installing a distribted system so now he wants me to tell him! Are there any documents available that would talk about the higher level issues, that management would be interested in? Implications and Impacts etc.

All i am able to find, in conducting research is info. on the technical adv. / dis-adv. of D-IS. But nothing mentioning possible generic higher level issues.

Any help / pointers would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance


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[jrbarnett]

General points:

Centralised system: 1 server, therefore single point of failure (ie if server dies, all access to database from anywhere goes).
Because single server across multiple sites, possible performance issues accessing it across remote WAN links/VPN etc, limited by external bandwidth.

Distributed system: Can have entire data replicated across system, but then have problems on ensuring all copies are kept up to date if one server is inaccessible.
Can also have partial replication where a subset of the data is held on different servers, which provides additional security - only data needed at particular sites is held there improving performance etc.

Best option is to look at degree level distributed database system textbooks which go into some detail about the pros and cons of each.

John