Uses of Computer Network

Resource Sharing - Resource sharing is the primary goal, which makes all programs, data and equipment available to everyone on the network regardless of the physical location of the resources and the users. A network of computers can provide a powreful communication medium among widely separated people.

High Resliability - High reliability can be achieved by having alternative sources of supply. Since all information can be replicated o more than one machine, if one of them is unavailable due to a failure, the other copies could be used. The presence of mulitple CPUs means that if one goes down, the others may be able to take over its work, although at reduced performance. The ability to continue to work even during a hardware failure is of great importance.

Economical - Another goal is saving money. Small computers have a much better price and performance ratio than large ones. A network of small powerful personal computers can achieve almost the same performance as that of larger Mainframes.

Communication Medium - A computer network can provide a powerful communication medium among widely separated people. Using a network a report can be prepared by two or more people together living far apart. Changes made to a document kept onine will be reflected to everyone on the network. This speedup makes cooperation among people easy. In the long run, the use of networks to enhance human-to-human communication may prove more important than technical goals.