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Centralized vs Decentralized Network

By February 14, 2020No Comments6 min read
Centralized vs Decentralized Network

In the past, there were very limited options available for network designing. Most networks were using a mainframe computer. However, there are multiple choices available now. You can create your own custom network according to your needs. There are two types of networks: decentralized and centralized network. You have to choose between these two network types.

What is the difference between both architectures?

There are many differences between these networks. The main difference will depend upon the authority of your network. If you are using a centralized network, then a single admin will control your whole network. In this, a single authority will have total control of your network. This authority is mainly maintained by a single central server. It is the responsibility of this server to manage all permissions and data. Also, the primary server will have access to most of your processing power.

The decentralized network works in a very different manner. In this, your whole network will be disturbed. Every node in your network will work as an individual authority. They will have their own decision-making power. Thus, every subject can choose to interact with other systems. This will help you in distributing the workload evenly in your network. Every server can access computing power in this network.

Centralized Network Working:

A centralized Network will provide more control to your enterprise. Also, they are easy to manage and deploy. Thus, most organizations are still using a centralized network. In this architecture, there is the main server. The whole network architecture will revolve around this central server. This central server will help you in managing the storage, processing and permission functions. The main server is mostly a very powerful machine. Thus, it can respond to a large number of requests. It will also manage your network resources. These servers will determine which system can access your resources. Also, you can use multiple conditions for limiting your traffic.

The main advantage of this network architecture is efficiency. In this, all the main functions will be managed by a central server. Thus, your IT department has to ensure that the main server is up-to-date. They have to install the latest software patches on this server. Also, they can focus on improving their hardware. This architecture will also help you in providing a better user experience. Your network will become predictable and stable. Also, every request will go through the central server. This will decrease the path length of these data packets. Hence, this will help you in improving your network speed.

However, there is also a disadvantage of using this architecture. This architecture can have security issues. If your central server is not responding, then your whole network will go down. Thus, attackers love this type of network architecture. They can steal all the data by hacking into the main server. Also, it is easy to do a DDoS attack. All you have to do is send a huge number of requests to the main server. Centralization can help you in increasing your network efficiency. However, if you don’t have enough bandwidth, then your systems will slowdown.

Decentralized Network Working:

This is becoming a very famous choice. The processing power of devices is increasing with time. Thus, they can process the data individually.  There are many different ways to achieve decentralization. But, in every method, there are multiple independent devices. Every node in your network will act as an independent entity. They can create their own rules for managing the workload and data.

It can be really difficult to manage this complex architecture. However, you can use this architecture with edge computing. Also, you can use the computing power of powerful IoT devices. Scalability is another advantage of this network. All you need to do is add a new device to your network. This will help you in increasing the resources of your network. In this architecture, you can easily increase the computing resources.

There is also another advantage of using this architecture. The system reliability of this architecture is better. Every node will act as an independent system. Thus, there is no single point of vulnerability in your network. Attackers can’t use an individual node for hacking into your whole network. Hence, this architecture will protect your network from attackers. They need to attack multiple nodes for hacking into your network. However, every node will have its own security. Thus, this will increase the complexity of the attack. It will become very difficult to compromise your whole network.

However, it is really difficult to manage and build this network. You need to focus on multiple machines in this architecture. Your IT department needs to ensure that every machine is up-to-date. Thus, they need to check for security patches in every machine. Also, these devices will consume more power. The latency will also increase in your system. Sometimes the data packets will travel through a larger route. This will increase your network latency.

Conclusion

You need to consider many things before designing your network. If you are looking for a network that is easy to manage, then a centralized network is perfect for you. It is difficult to implement a decentralized network. Also, it is difficult to manage this architecture. But, there are many benefits of using this architecture. The security of your network will improve.

There can be performance issues with both the architectures. If you are using a centralized network, then your central server must have sufficient bandwidth. This will help you in avoiding bandwidth bottlenecks. If you are using a decentralized network, then you need to optimize every node. This will help you in dealing with the network latency issue. You should factors in other things before making your choice. If you are using a decentralized network, then you can easily scale up your network. Most IoT devices have enough processing power to handle data requests. Thus, you can add these IoT devices for increasing your processing power. If you want more information regarding network architecture, then you can contact Bleuwire.

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