Distributed Database vs Centralised Database

[amits]

Hi ,
I have a situation where we have 200 locations ,each location is having a separate database.At each day end we update the transaction from all the database to a centralised database.Now the client wants to web enable the application.
Which approach will be suitable in this case 1.Distributed Database
2.Centralised Database.
What are the pros and cons of both.
Please give some suggestions.
Thanks
Amit

[prakashs43]

strategy can be better decided based on

1) the application type being used .
2) frequency and type of transactions .
3) network area spanned .
ofcourse there are several other factors like cost , bandwidth , etc...

there is one more option of composite datamodel .
regional database + centralised . mostly this the the strategy followed for such a huge setup .

[amits]

I have only following inputs:
Current System:
The data from 2400 dealers is currently transmitted to the corporate office via satellite communications and backed up in mainframe. The backup is incremental.
Required System: The requirement is to web enable the whole application.I am just wondering what are the various options we have to do this.

[prakashs43]

we cannot jump to conclusion without much information.
apart from earlier information in the above post . we also need to know following
1) database size
2) transactions per day ,
3) type of transactions are they mostly query based or
heavy insert , modification also needed .
4) can the data from one dealer be available to the other dealers in other regions after certain taime lag ( for refresh )
5) should all the information be applied to all the dealers all the time ?
6) archival strategy for records .
7) are individual applications ( for various dealers same ? )
if there is any database difference , then just common tables can be centralised and remaing tables can be distributed ..

hope u are getting the point .