What is a distributed system.

A non-centralized network consisting of numerous computers that can communicate with one another and that appear to users as parts of a single, large, accessible "storehouse" of shared hardware, software, and data. A distributed system is conceptually the opposite of a centralized, or monolithic, system in which clients connect to a single central computer, such as a mainframe.


A system with components that must work together where those components are distributed over a private or public network.

   
Distributed computing is the process of aggregating the power of several computing entities to collaboratively run a single computational task in a transparent and coherent way, so that they appear as a single, centralized system.