Eight Fallacies of Distributed Computing

Big Trouble & Painful Learning

Essentially everyone, when they first build a distributed application, makes the following eight assumptions. All prove to be false in the long run and all cause big trouble and painful learning experiences—Peter Deutsch.

1. The network is reliable.

1. Latency is zero.

1. Bandwidth is infinite.

1. The network is secure.

1. Topology doesn't change.

1. There is one administrator.

1. Transport cost is zero.

1. The network is homogeneous.