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I need to understand the motivations behind distributed computing, namely the fact to perform a computation by making physically separated computer, connected by communication links, work together.

I am in particular interested in a review explaining their interest in the context of being more resilient to errors (I know this is among the motivations).

Importantly: I am working in quantum computing, with interest in distributed quantum computing. I am then not an expert of classical computing (this is why I am asking for a pedagogic review). Essentially, I would like to better understand the motivations to distribute a computation in the classical paradigm (because there can have a big communication cost, it is not clear that distributing is always a good idea).

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Some basic pros and cons are outlined here. There are multiple books on the topic as well e.g.

Kshemkalyani, A. D., Singhal, M. (2011). Distributed Computing: Principles, Algorithms, and Systems. (n.p.): Cambridge University Press.

Tanenbaum, A. S., Steen, M. v. (2016). Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms. Netherlands: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.

Peleg, D. (2000). Distributed Computing: A Locality-sensitive Approach. United States: Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

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Laslie Lamport is very influential in the field of distributed computation, here is his quote: "A distributed system is one in which the failure of a computer you didn't even know existed can render your own computer unusable'' is a famous Lamport quip. I would suggest to check the article about him. he's trying to formalize that field, which is very hard. So try to find out his works and research his contributions to the field. Even classical distributed computation is still active area of research (especially it's formal verification). thanks for the helpful comments, I edit the answer to add further links, that asks the question "why", about distributed systems. aws about pros of distributed computation, aws engineer about pros of distributed computation.

P.S also since the other answer also provided references, I think author got enough combined resources for the topic, I consider my answer worth to not delete, if there are other suggestions or comments I am very grateful for that, also if arguments will be further provided about irrelevance of my answer, I will gladly delete it. Thanks to this community that I am able to communicate about computer science with people around the world.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you very much. This is indeed an important name to know (that I didn't). Unfortunately, I did not find a review of distributed computing in his list of papers. $\endgroup$
    – StarBuck
    Commented Mar 26 at 22:46
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    $\begingroup$ While I appreciate the contributions, I don't see how this answers the question that was asked. The question asked for information about the motivations behind distributed computing. I don't see any motivations listed here, or any references that describe the motivations. While Leslie Lamport is amazing and has done brilliant work, I think our expectations are that an answer should be more specific, either by explaining the motivations, or by suggesting a specific paper or reading that explains the motivation. $\endgroup$
    – D.W. ♦
    Commented Mar 27 at 4:22
  • $\begingroup$ I thought author wanted to find motivation behind it, so he wanted some references about distributed computation that would talk about distributed computation and its importance as well, I will try to edit answer later and include more specific references, thanks for the suggestion. (my answer is general, but I think provides important reference to Laslie Lamport, I will try to include more detailed references later, currently only have time to comment). $\endgroup$
    – math boy
    Commented Mar 27 at 7:34

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