Centralized System

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A Centralized System concentrates primary control, processing, authoritative data, or system services within a central node or central location.

Other nodes, clients, or components communicate with the central node to obtain the services or data provided by the system.

A Centralized System commonly uses a Centralized Network Topology, but the system concept and the network topology remain distinct:

• A Centralized System describes the allocation of system authority, processing, state, and services
• A Centralized Network Topology describes the arrangement and interconnection of network nodes

The central node commonly performs functions such as:

• Processing requests
• Maintaining authoritative data
• Coordinating system behavior
• Enforcing access controls
• Recording transactions
• Providing shared services
• Managing backups and recovery

A Centralized System differs from a Distributed System, which allocates coordinated system behavior across multiple networked nodes.

system in which primary control, processing, authoritative state, or services are concentrated within a central node or central location

• DIDO Reference Architecture, Network Topology Taxonomy
• Dido Solutions, Inc. and Jackrabbit Consulting, Inc.

A Centralized System does not require all components to reside on one physical computer.

Clients, interfaces, storage devices, and supporting services can reside on multiple computers while the system retains centralized authority or control.

A central node can create a single point of control and a single point of failure unless the architecture provides redundancy or failover.

The term does not prescribe a mainframe, database technology, cloud platform, network protocol, or deployment model.

A system uses one authoritative management server to store environment records, issue management commands, and coordinate all managed nodes.

The clients and managed nodes reside on separate computers, but the management authority remains centralized.