As I’m learning more about full-stack engineering, I’ve realized something: even though all components are important, the database is the most essential piece of distributed systems. Why? Because databases store all the critical user and business information. Without a database, you can’t save or retrieve anything. Your system would essentially be starting from scratch every single time.
But here’s the thing. I know I just said the database is the most essential, but without the server, none of the connected services would work. The server is what listens to client requests and handles all the business logic of your application. It’s the bridge between the client and everything else in your system. So really, the server is the connector, and the database is the backbone.
Another crucial component is load balancers, especially when you’re dealing with a ton of users. Load balancers keep your servers healthy by detecting which ones are up and running, then routing traffic to the healthy servers. Instead of hammering one server with all the requests and overloading it, they distribute the load evenly across multiple servers.
Then you have caching, which is another form of data storage. Caching saves user information, so they don’t have to keep logging in or reloading data every time they use your application. It makes everything faster and smoother.
And CDNs (Content Delivery Networks) are huge for reducing latency. For example, if a user is in London but your headquarters is in San Francisco, a CDN lets them connect to a London server instead of making that long request across the Atlantic. Oh, and I almost forgot. Proxies also help with load balancing and routing traffic efficiently.
This is why distributed systems are so core to building modern applications. Every component depends on the others to keep everything running smoothly.