diff --git a/docs/source/index.rst b/docs/source/index.rst
index 32f4ab3dbb..ec85f7e043 100644
--- a/docs/source/index.rst
+++ b/docs/source/index.rst
@@ -141,3 +141,4 @@ Indices and tables
    api/pytorch_lightning.utilities
    api/pytorch_lightning.tuner
    api/pytorch_lightning.plugins
+   api/pytorch_lightning.distributed
diff --git a/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/base_backend.py b/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/base_backend.py
index 0afedf14ab..60ea76aaa7 100644
--- a/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/base_backend.py
+++ b/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/base_backend.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import torch
 from pytorch_lightning.utilities import AMPType, rank_zero_warn
 from pytorch_lightning.utilities.apply_func import move_data_to_device
 from pytorch_lightning.utilities.exceptions import MisconfigurationException
+from pytorch_lightning.utilities.parsing import AttributeDict
 
 try:
     from apex import amp
@@ -21,6 +22,7 @@ class Accelerator(object):
 
     def __init__(self, trainer):
         self.trainer = trainer
+        self.dist = AttributeDict(rank=0, device=None)
 
     def setup(self, model):
         pass
@@ -31,6 +33,9 @@ class Accelerator(object):
     def barrier(self, name: str = None):
         pass
 
+    def broadcast(self, obj, src=0):
+        return obj
+
     def train_or_test(self):
         if self.trainer.testing:
             results = self.trainer.run_test()
diff --git a/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/ddp_base_backend.py b/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/ddp_base_backend.py
index 526b06d59d..35dc89abe6 100644
--- a/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/ddp_base_backend.py
+++ b/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/ddp_base_backend.py
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ from pytorch_lightning.utilities import AMPType
 from pytorch_lightning.utilities.cloud_io import atomic_save
 from pytorch_lightning.utilities.distributed import rank_zero_only, rank_zero_warn
 from pytorch_lightning.utilities.seed import seed_everything
+from pytorch_lightning.distributed.dist import LightningDistributed
 
 try:
     from hydra.core.hydra_config import HydraConfig
@@ -38,6 +39,7 @@ class DDPBase(Accelerator):
 
     def __init__(self, trainer):
         super().__init__(trainer)
+        self.dist = LightningDistributed()
 
     def training_step(self, args):
         if self.trainer.amp_backend == AMPType.NATIVE:
@@ -177,6 +179,9 @@ class DDPBase(Accelerator):
         if self.trainer.global_rank == 0:
             return results
 
+    def broadcast(self, obj, src=0):
+        return self.dist.broadcast(obj)
+
     def set_world_ranks(self, process_idx):
         raise NotImplementedError('to create a ddp backend, please implement set_world_ranks')
 
diff --git a/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/ddp_cpu_spawn_backend.py b/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/ddp_cpu_spawn_backend.py
index 58577be618..2f0c6d29c7 100644
--- a/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/ddp_cpu_spawn_backend.py
+++ b/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/ddp_cpu_spawn_backend.py
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ from pytorch_lightning.utilities import AMPType
 from pytorch_lightning.utilities.cloud_io import atomic_save
 from pytorch_lightning.utilities.distributed import rank_zero_only, rank_zero_warn
 from pytorch_lightning.utilities.distributed import find_free_network_port
+from pytorch_lightning.distributed.dist import LightningDistributed
 
 try:
     from hydra.core.hydra_config import HydraConfig
@@ -41,6 +42,7 @@ class DDPCPUSpawnBackend(Accelerator):
         super().__init__(trainer)
         self.mp_queue = None
         self.nprocs = nprocs
+        self.dist = LightningDistributed()
 
     def setup(self, model):
         os.environ['MASTER_PORT'] = os.environ.get('MASTER_PORT', str(find_free_network_port()))
@@ -174,6 +176,9 @@ class DDPCPUSpawnBackend(Accelerator):
     def barrier(self, name: str = None):
         torch_distrib.barrier()
 
+    def broadcast(self, obj, src=0):
+        return self.dist.broadcast(obj)
+
     def early_stopping_should_stop(self, pl_module):
         stop = torch.tensor(int(self.trainer.should_stop), device=pl_module.device)
         dist.all_reduce(stop, op=dist.reduce_op.SUM)
diff --git a/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/dp_backend.py b/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/dp_backend.py
index 87d00bcd8b..0bf7e18bc2 100644
--- a/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/dp_backend.py
+++ b/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/dp_backend.py
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ import torch
 from torch import optim
 
 from pytorch_lightning.accelerators.base_backend import Accelerator
-from pytorch_lightning.core import LightningModule
+from pytorch_lightning.distributed import LightningDistributed
 from pytorch_lightning.core.step_result import Result
 from pytorch_lightning.overrides.data_parallel import LightningDataParallel
 from pytorch_lightning.utilities import AMPType
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ class DataParallelBackend(Accelerator):
     def __init__(self, trainer):
         super().__init__(trainer)
         self.model_autocast_original_forward = None
+        self.dist = LightningDistributed()
 
     def setup(self, model):
         # call setup after the ddp process has connected
diff --git a/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/gpu_backend.py b/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/gpu_backend.py
index d3c6c59160..ea1d57ccea 100644
--- a/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/gpu_backend.py
+++ b/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/gpu_backend.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import torch
 
 from pytorch_lightning.accelerators.base_backend import Accelerator
 from pytorch_lightning.utilities import AMPType
+from pytorch_lightning.distributed.dist import LightningDistributed
 
 
 class GPUBackend(Accelerator):
@@ -23,6 +24,7 @@ class GPUBackend(Accelerator):
 
     def __init__(self, trainer):
         super().__init__(trainer)
+        self.dist = LightningDistributed()
 
     def setup(self, model):
 
diff --git a/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/horovod_backend.py b/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/horovod_backend.py
index cfdf80fa2b..2fcf75c215 100644
--- a/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/horovod_backend.py
+++ b/pytorch_lightning/accelerators/horovod_backend.py
@@ -158,3 +158,7 @@ class HorovodBackend(Accelerator):
 
     def barrier(self, name: str = None):
         hvd.join()
+
+    def broadcast(self, obj, src=0):
+        obj = hvd.broadcast_object(obj, src)
+        return obj
diff --git a/pytorch_lightning/callbacks/model_checkpoint.py b/pytorch_lightning/callbacks/model_checkpoint.py
index d29b7e4ce8..4357163f46 100644
--- a/pytorch_lightning/callbacks/model_checkpoint.py
+++ b/pytorch_lightning/callbacks/model_checkpoint.py
@@ -366,7 +366,6 @@ class ModelCheckpoint(Callback):
         ckpt_name = f"{filename}.ckpt"
         return os.path.join(self.dirpath, ckpt_name) if self.dirpath else ckpt_name
 
-    @rank_zero_only
     def __resolve_ckpt_dir(self, trainer, pl_module):
         """
         Determines model checkpoint save directory at runtime. References attributes from the
@@ -398,8 +397,11 @@ class ModelCheckpoint(Callback):
                 if isinstance(trainer.logger.version, str)
                 else f"version_{trainer.logger.version}"
             )
+
+            version, name = trainer.accelerator_backend.broadcast((version, trainer.logger.name))
+
             ckpt_path = os.path.join(
-                save_dir, trainer.logger.name, version, "checkpoints"
+                save_dir, name, version, "checkpoints"
             )
         else:
             ckpt_path = os.path.join(trainer.weights_save_path, "checkpoints")
diff --git a/pytorch_lightning/distributed/__init__.py b/pytorch_lightning/distributed/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..15540f7a7d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pytorch_lightning/distributed/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+from pytorch_lightning.distributed.dist import LightningDistributed
diff --git a/pytorch_lightning/distributed/dist.py b/pytorch_lightning/distributed/dist.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a3f0378f0a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pytorch_lightning/distributed/dist.py
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+import io
+import torch
+from typing import Any
+from torch import distributed as torch_distrib
+
+
+class LightningDistributed:
+
+    def __init__(self, rank=None, device=None):
+        self.rank = rank
+        self.device = device
+
+    def broadcast(self, obj: Any):
+        if self.rank == 0:
+            self._emit(obj)
+        else:
+            obj = self._receive()
+        return obj
+
+    def _emit(self, obj):
+        buffer = io.BytesIO()
+        torch.save(obj, buffer)
+        data = bytearray(buffer.getbuffer())
+        length_tensor = torch.tensor([len(data)]).long().to(self.device)
+        length_tensor = torch_distrib.broadcast(length_tensor, src=0)
+        data_tensor = torch.ByteTensor(data).to(self.device)
+        data_tensor = torch_distrib.broadcast(data_tensor, src=0)
+
+    def _receive(self):
+        length_tensor = torch.tensor([0]).long().to(self.device)
+        torch_distrib.broadcast(length_tensor, src=0)
+        data_tensor = torch.empty([length_tensor.item()], dtype=torch.uint8).to(self.device)
+        torch_distrib.broadcast(data_tensor, src=0)
+        buffer = io.BytesIO(data_tensor.cpu().numpy())
+        obj = torch.load(buffer)
+        return obj
diff --git a/pytorch_lightning/trainer/logging.py b/pytorch_lightning/trainer/logging.py
index ff8aab3743..26572feb5e 100644
--- a/pytorch_lightning/trainer/logging.py
+++ b/pytorch_lightning/trainer/logging.py
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ class TrainerLoggingMixin(ABC):
                     m = inspect.cleandoc(
                         f"""The {{{k}:dict keyword}} was deprecated in 0.9.1 and will be removed in 1.0.0
                         Please use self.log(...) inside the lightningModule instead.
-    
+
                         # log on a step or aggregate epoch metric to the logger and/or progress bar
                         # (inside LightningModule)
                         self.log('train_loss', loss, on_step=True, on_epoch=True, prog_bar=True)
diff --git a/pytorch_lightning/trainer/training_loop.py b/pytorch_lightning/trainer/training_loop.py
index 428e081a5c..e670c01f04 100644
--- a/pytorch_lightning/trainer/training_loop.py
+++ b/pytorch_lightning/trainer/training_loop.py
@@ -108,6 +108,9 @@ class TrainLoop:
         if self.trainer.data_parallel:
             ref_model = model.module
 
+        self.trainer.accelerator_backend.dist.rank = self.trainer.global_rank
+        self.trainer.accelerator_backend.dist.device = ref_model.device
+
         # give model convenience properties
         ref_model.trainer = self.trainer
 
diff --git a/tests/callbacks/test_model_checkpoint.py b/tests/callbacks/test_model_checkpoint.py
index 4fdd03e1e6..fd39490318 100644
--- a/tests/callbacks/test_model_checkpoint.py
+++ b/tests/callbacks/test_model_checkpoint.py
@@ -437,7 +437,7 @@ def test_model_checkpoint_save_last_checkpoint_contents(tmpdir):
     trainer.fit(model)
 
     path_last_epoch = str(tmpdir / f"epoch={num_epochs - 1}.ckpt")
-    path_last = str(tmpdir / f"last.ckpt")
+    path_last = str(tmpdir / "last.ckpt")
     assert path_last == model_checkpoint.last_model_path
 
     ckpt_last_epoch = torch.load(path_last_epoch)
diff --git a/tests/core/test_datamodules.py b/tests/core/test_datamodules.py
index 4e4476955a..5325ca828e 100644
--- a/tests/core/test_datamodules.py
+++ b/tests/core/test_datamodules.py
@@ -235,6 +235,7 @@ def test_dm_checkpoint_save(tmpdir):
     assert dm.__class__.__name__ in checkpoint
     assert checkpoint[dm.__class__.__name__] == dm.__class__.__name__
 
+
 def test_test_loop_only(tmpdir):
     reset_seed()