This document discusses distributed databases and was presented by students in an ICT 223 class. It defines a distributed database as a collection of interconnected databases located across different physical locations that communicate over a computer network. Distributed databases allow data to be shared across organizational units, support both online transactional and analytical processing, and provide more reliable and faster access to data than centralized databases. The goals of distributed database systems are to improve reliability, availability, and performance. There are two types: homogeneous systems use the same DBMS software, while heterogeneous systems use different DBMS software.