What is decentralization?
Decentralization is the distribution of functions, control and information instead of centralizing them in a single entity. The term is used in numerous sectors and industries, from information technology to retail and government. It also denotes a system that has multiple paths for information to flow.
A centralized system is often known as a hub-and-spoke model, patterned after a bicycle wheel. Everything on the endpoints travels down the spokes to the hub, or central system. This is the essence of the mainframe computer design. Whether it's a green terminal or a PC, they all connect into the mainframe, which creates a single point of vulnerability. If the hub (in this case, the mainframe) goes down, the entire network goes down and no work can be done.
The ultimate example of a decentralized network is the internet itself. When its predecessor, ARPANET, was built for the U.S. Defense Department in 1969, it was designed to survive a nuclear attack, so if one portion of the network went down, traffic would be rerouted through other parts of the network.
That design remains in operation to this day. Even though local outages are fairly frequent, it is virtually impossible to take down the entire internet.
