Explain Internet and distributed application services Essay

Explain Internet and distributed application services - Essay Example Different forms of clusters exist and each has its failures, and advantages that paper intends to examine. Introduction The term cluster is used in the computer technology to refer to a group of loosely coupled computers that are configured to work as a unit. Every node often operates as a complete unit as opposed to the operations of a tightly coupled multiprocessing system. Clustered computers usually have independent CPU, I/O, and memory (Englander, 2003). Clustered computers may constitute multiple processing systems. A computer in a cluster refers to a node (Englander, 2003). The main aim of clustering computers is to make the users to see them as single machines, which they are not in the actual sense. There are the main reasons for clustering computers; however, each reason has its challenges and better share of benefits. The main advantages of clustering include increasing the computing power of computers by combining the individual power of each computer. Notably, a computer has the power to process data independently (Englander, 2003). ... Fundamentally, clustering is a significant practice in computer technology since it is a sure way of increasing or designing highly performing computer systems. The processing problem including parallel processing units can be solved by breaking the problem into subtasks and then distributing them to different or parallel processing units among the nodes thereby solving the problem in parallel (Englander, 2003). Clustering also intends to create fault tolerant systems because each computer with the cluster is able to operate alone without the assistance from other computers within the cluster (Englander, 2003). Therefore, a node failure will not lead to standstill operational since the entire cluster will not be closed. The software controlling the entire cluster is capable of switching processes to other nodes within the cluster in a process referred to failover. Therefore, failures of certain nodes, the failed nodes’ processes can be switched to other functional nodes within the system; this switching will facilitate the continuation of processes that were running on the failed node or computer (Englander, 2003). Nonetheless, a cluster that has never experienced any form of failure can be designed and this is often advantageous for systems that process critical applications. Clusters are also vital in creating high available systems where computers within the cluster can be distributed geographically over a wide area (Englander, 2003). Therefore, users can access the closest computer system with the cluster. In most cases, this phenomenon creates a natural balancing of loads among different or series of computer nodes