A distributed database has which of the following advantages over a centralized database?

Solution (By Examveda Team)

A distributed database offers several advantages over a centralized database architecture.

Option A: Software cost
This option is not typically considered an advantage of distributed databases over centralized databases. The cost of software can vary based on factors such as licensing models, vendor pricing, and the specific requirements of the database system. Both distributed and centralized databases may incur software costs depending on the technologies used and the scale of deployment.

Option B: Software complexity
While distributed databases may introduce additional complexity compared to centralized databases due to factors such as network communication, data replication, and synchronization mechanisms, this complexity is often outweighed by the benefits they offer, such as improved scalability, fault tolerance, and performance. Additionally, advancements in distributed database technologies have led to the development of tools and frameworks that help manage and mitigate the complexity associated with distributed systems.

Option C: Slow Response
Distributed databases are designed to enhance responsiveness and performance by distributing data across multiple sites and allowing parallel processing of queries. While network latency and communication overhead can affect response times in distributed systems, proper design, optimization, and caching mechanisms can mitigate these issues. In many cases, distributed databases can provide faster response times compared to centralized databases, especially for geographically dispersed users.

Option D: Modular growth
One of the significant advantages of distributed databases is their ability to support modular growth. Distributed architectures allow organizations to scale their database systems by adding or removing nodes (servers) as needed without significant disruptions to operations. This modular scalability enables organizations to adapt their database infrastructure to changing demands, such as increasing data volumes, user concurrency, or geographic expansion, without the need for costly and time-consuming migrations or overhauls.

Therefore, in the context of advantages of distributed databases over centralized databases, the correct option is Modular growth (Option D).