4. Types of distributed database (1)

There are three main options when putting together a distributed database.

1. Duplicated database at each location

With this system, a local copy of the entire database is kept at each location. As shown below.

Local copy of a distributed database

This is often not practical for a number of reasons:

Disadvantages:
  • Very heavy use of the network.
  • Whole database may be huge requiring large storage requirement at each location
  • Difficult to keep all copies in synchronisation
  • It does not scale well as the database grows.
  • Wasteful if only a small area of the database is needed by each branch
Advantages:
  • If the database is fairly small, then this may be a practical solution.

 

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Click on this link: duplicating a distributed database