Grantham UniversityIS 242

Describe each term below and provide an example of a company (real or imagined) that uses this concept. Describe how it impacts the company to process information this way.

• Centralized processing
• Decentralized processing
• Distributed processing

Answer:

• • Centralized processing is an approach to processing wherein all processing occurs in a single location. Ticket master reservation service is an example of a centralized system and the impact is that there is one central computer with a database storing information about events and records the purchase which can cause an input/output bottleneck due to high traffic.
  • Decentralized processing is an approach to processing wherein processing devices are placed at various remote locations. An example is 7-Eleven. All stores do not have the same processing devices such as cash registers and gasoline pumps. This impacts the company because too much focus is put on the smaller sections of a business, the overall objective and goals of the business as a whole can be skewed. This is the main reason that many companies choose against decentralization.
• • Distributed processing is an approach to processing wherein processing devices are placed at remote locations but are connected to each other via a network. An example company that uses distributed processing is Kroger. All of their supermarkets are connected to a network with data being sent to a data repository on a mainframe computer. Distributed processing has a positive impact because managers can allocate data to locations and process it more efficiently.