Fallacies of Distributed Computing

Series Archive

I'm taking a look at the classic list of common, errant assumptions about distributed computing: How do the fallacies express themselves today, and how do they continue to help us develop modern distributed systems?

10.25 Many Dimensions of HeterogeneityThe final fallacy of distributed computing - 'The Network is Always homogenous' - has more dimensions than typically considered. These tie all the other fallacies together.
08.30 There's Always Money in the Banana StandExcept the 'banana stand' is the transport layer and instead of saving the money for later you're just always setting it on fire.
08.23 There Are Infinite AdministratorsYes, infinite, and they're inventing more each day! The larger the system, the greater the problem that nobody really knows how it all works.
06.19 The Topologies They Are a-Changin'Okay, dumb title, but could you really have done better? Shifting topologies have always presented problems for distributed computing, and modern infrastructure systems sometimes leave us worse off than ever before.
05.30 There's More to Network Security than the NetworkAssuming a secure network in a distributed system loses sight of all the ways vulnerabilities can creep into our systems. Just as distributed computing makes our systems 10x more complex, the same effect is felt on security.
04.26 Bandwidth is Infinite ... ly TroublesomeThe bandwidth of the world-wide web has increased dramatically, but so has its demand. There's an abolute limit to how much data we can all transmit, and working around that requires dilligence.
03.29 Latency is Zero and the Speed of Light is Getting FasterLatency is a constant and unavoidable fact of nature, but we can plan for it, work around it, and respond to it.
02.21 The Network is Unreliable and Reliability is ScaryIndeed the network is unreliable, and this is especially concerning for modern, distributed system. The catch though is that it never can be 100% reliable, and we can't create systems that perfectly compensate for this.