Essential Guide to Computing: The Story of Information Technology, The

Distributed Data Vs. Distributed Processing

The examples we have shown so far are mostly of distributed processing rather than distributed data. The data in these examples (e.g., information on flights and seats available) sits in one place and is accessed by many users simultaneously. You can well imagine that having one single repository of data with a huge number of concurrent users, but also strict limits on access, is very difficult to do. IBM, which developed the first airline reservation system, Sabre, for American Airlines, would agree, and expects to be well-compensated for its hardware, software, and organizational expertise. Of course, the Sabre system, which is as complex as anything around, isn't just one machine—there are local ...