Introduction and Overview

Abstract

Significant advances in technology have resulted in the move of computing resources from centralized facilities to the computer user’s desktop. Very large scale integration and the advent of data-communication networks have made desktop computers an affordable alternative to centralized facilities. Data-communication networks connect the computers together allowing the exchange of information and the sharing ofresources between different computers on the network. Resources can now be concentrated in the computer that best provides the resource; that computer can make the resource available to other computers via the network. An application is no longer confined to the resources available on the local computer, but can now use the resources available to the network.