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Cloud Computing: A perfect storm gathering

Cloud Computing: A perfect storm gathering

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DATE : Wed, 29 Oct 2008 07:44:58 PDT
Entered in Database : 2008-10-29 14:44:58
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Listen There is a perfect storm gathering in the computing world, a storm that is set to scour present day computing into a strange and foreign landscape. One that could potentially see everyday home and business computing become a virtually inescapable cloud utility service like electricity or water. Except this utility service would be global and ultimately run by giants like Google, Microsoft, Sun, Cisco, Amazon etc. There are many elements to the coming storm amongst them are Cloud Computing, Datacenter’s, Thin clients, Parallel/Distributed Computing, Software as a Service (Saas) and Web Operating Software (WebOS). But perhaps the one banner under which all these elements can come together is Utility Computing. The idea of utility computing is not new, it was first put forward by John McCarthy a computer scientist (he also coined the term Artificial Intelligence), back in 1961 at MIT’s centennial celebrations. “Computing may someday be organized as a public utility just as the telephone system is a public utility... The computer utility could become the basis of a new and important industry.”- John McCarthy But whilst his ideas were well received they proved impossible to put into practice due to technological limitations, limitations that kept practical utility computing a distant dream for over 36 years. That was until Tom O’Reilly wrote an essay called “The Open Source Paradigm Shift” which sparked a renewed interest and saw the building and release of utility computing services for data storage and processing power by companies like Sun, HP and Alexa. Initially aimed at big business and research institutes etc. for massive data storage or colossal computing power, these were hired as on demand services. But perhaps with a bigger picture in mind one company quietly began building “commodity” (cheap as we can get them) data centres around the world, primarily thought to be adding their search and database abilities. Datacenters’s simply put are warehouses full of server computers that are intrinsically linked together with high speed Ethernets. This is where parallel and distributed computing come into their own, like the old saying two head are better than one. Now how about a thousand, ten thousand or 1,300,000 like the number of processors estimated to be at Google’s datacenter in Oregon? Because that’s the power of parallel and distributed computing, the ability to take computing tasks and spread their processing loads amongst the server farms or datacenter’s. In effect once wired together datacenter’s become supercomputers that are super adaptable. They can be segmented to perform any number of tasks from data storage to parallel and distributed computing. Now while Sun, HP, Amazon etc. offer the raw power of their datacenter’s on a per server/hourly basis or per Gig storage facility and do offer some specialist software. It is the likes of Google and others like Sapotek who perhaps see where the real market is headed. And the name of that game is Web Services or software application services only available on the web. Docs, Gmail, Calender are but a few of the free online services that Google is presently offering, services that could potentially in the not to distant future cover everything you need from home to work software. If you take a look at Sapotek’s, DesktopTwo you will find a whole virtual desktop WebOS at your disposal. So if the web service provider has the processing power and storage facility to meet your computing demands, it begs the question, well do I really need my desktop PC in its current form? The rapid pace of computing technology enshrined in Moore’s Law has long been a source delight to hardware manufactures. We all know the rule of redundancy when it comes to our home and office PC’s, one that see’s us selling or scrapping millions of PC’s every year worldwide. Or face the alternative of watching your computers slowly grind to a halt from new OS’s and software designed for faster newer computers, until you have no choice anymore but to buy. But with a new utility computing age, Cloud computing supported by datacenter’s around the world, combined with Thin or Lean Client computing could see the PC as we know it going the way of the floppy disk. The core of cloud computing is the server farm or datacenter with its racks of roof high servers all running in parallel using virtualisation software to run it. Now tack on web linked user and administration front ends with links to the available software services or a virtual desktop. And that’s basic cloud computing, giving the end user web access to the software and the power of the datacenter’s to process it. Which bring us back to the question if someone else is doing the hard part of processing required for your software then why have your expensive new yet already out of date desktop PC? This is where Thin Client computing kicks in. Fat Client computing is our PC computing as we generally know it. Our desktop PC’s are self reliant and only call upon other computers for communications or remote data storage. But what this amounts to especially in the office environment where bang for buck is paramount, is a huge underutilisation of the inherent power and storage facility of each PC. Vast numbers of PC’s in the office environment sit idle after work hours. And for the most part during office hours only use up to 50% of their processing power and perhaps a total of 20% of their storage capacity. Thin client computing is often called a return to the mainframe era; it however has some notable differences. The thin client computers are bare bones, only carrying enough processing power and storage space to serve as relay between the user and the server. They used to be called a graphic terminal and is today is also called a hybrid client or diskless node. The similarly bare bones OS-lite is stored in a flash drive and if an end user thin client usually housed in a rugged case with a touch screen terminal and sealed keypad. Initially developed for use in extreme conditions such as the battle field or deep desert. Thin clients provided a way to keep sensitive computer equipment and data storage out of the fray. They are the opposite of our Fat client desktop PC’s in that the main bulk of processing and data storage takes place in the server cloud and is then just relayed to the thin client. So if thin clients can work from web services plugged into server clouds running off huge datacenter’s around the world, providing your every computing need at home and work. What need is there for you desktop box soon to be e-waste? If one looks at the cellphone revolution where cell providers just about give away cellphones just to tie you in to where the real money is for them. Namely the utility of communication, billable hours of cellphone use. It stands to reason that ultimately this is where utility computing is headed, billable hours of computer use. Perhaps with Google and the like heavily subsidising thin clients and virtually giving them away to tie you into their cloud of web served applications. Either way you look at it utility web services are the future kings of computing as seen buy Microsoft’s avid interest buying in the ailing Yahoo. Now if you roll all these elements into one what you get is the impending perfect storm, set to change everything. There are still however a number of limiting factors that slow the approach. Amongst them is Bandwidth is perhaps the biggest bottle neck for utility computing, it’s no good having a supercomputer at your disposal if the connection to it is low bandwidth with high error latency. Whilst broadband is improving worldwide it is not yet up to the task of running a world full of virtual desktops running off distributed server clouds. Another is security also of paramount concern from individual privacy to corporate, can we trust the security systems that safeguard our data. There are arguments that for the most part datacenter’s will have far more stringent and up to date security systems than most companies maintain. Whilst utility computing would forever change the landscape of computing, in the end it makes a whole lot of sense. In terms of efficiency as compared to now with the huge global waste of computing resources, and the mountains of e-waste generated each year, it can’t be beat. For home and work it would see the end of billions of dollars a year spent just to keep afloat in an ever changing world of new hardware and software. Datacenter’s can become affordable supercomputers for just the average user accessible through your thin client in what ever form that might take, from a touch screen and keypad to just your future cellphone. Which ever way the storm goes you can count on major change to the way we compute and thereby the way we live. This article was written By Ivor W. Hartmann at The IWH Inquirer.

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