Grid Computing Now! So did we do the job?
There's a debate raging in the Google Cloud Computing group about what are the key lessons to be learned from Grid Computing in bringing the notion of Cloud Computing to the market place. It sort of runs like this: "we don't want to make the same mistakes as Grid!" to which the grid
afficionados involved will respond with "what do you mean mistakes? Grid has been successful and Cloud is but an offshoot of Grid!" Those of you with any lengthy experience of the computing geek mind will know what happens next. A text version of the pantomime comedy line "Oh no you didn't"; "Oh yes you did!" delightfully summarised in the immortal Monty Python Argument sketch as "a simple act of gainsaying".
I have made my living for the past 3 and an half years from the proposition that "grid computing is good for us and we should all adopt it!", stemming from the work done in the UK e-Science programme over the past 10 years. Sitting here in 2008, it doesn't feel a bad place to be. Our collective view is that the best of the ideas from grid computing
middleware, regarded as configuration, resource allocation, scheduling and job management, seemed to have been incorporated into a set of useful tools for system management and
virtualisation.
Thus we have distributed computing infrastructures, often heterogeneous, and useful means for increasing utilisation in the data centre. Is this Grid, well for the purists, no, the infrastructures are usually proprietary and therefore not Grid, but for the pragmatists - of which readers will observe I am one, the answer is yes, this seems to have the right effect and its not bad for a start!!
What do you think the progress with Grid adoption has been over the past 3 years? Can you point to successful examples? Or proof points that its not happening? I'll be interested to know.
Meantime, at the world watching paint dry championships ...
Labels: e-Science, Grid Computing, virtualisation
Green IT, Carbon Economics, Missing the point?
So just returned from a brief break away in the Deep South of England where I indulged in the usual process of theatre, Stratford and
RSC - Respect!; the Guildford Cricket Festival, Surrey - you've lost your mojo! and meeting friends and family, the
Thai Terrace in Guildford, what a glorious oasis in suburbia! During my break I studiously ignored my
BlackBerry - a habit fostered with the introduction of e-mail at HP in 1982 - and only occasionally kept up with the news. However, on return I came across the
announcement of a government "green" initiative which hopes to achieve carbon neutraility by 2020.
My colleague,
Jerry Fishenden at MS, has previously pointed out that there is an huge opportunity for IT to contribute positively to the reduction of carbon emissions through the effective deployment of services and reduction in waste that can be accomplished using applications. Imagine, full trucks going
both ways on the M6; your local white van man making only one tour of your district to deliver web-ordered goods; your choice of transport mode influenced by early warning of traffic delays; etc..
In addition, the news this morning featured shock/horror stories of the fact that the UK carbon footprint may well have grown since 1990 once the total lifecycle of products and services consumed is taken into account, and you'll get a sense of where I am standing on this issue.
I believe that we have an huge opportunity in ICT to revolutionise the way we do work and deliver products and services and that by concentrating on the real challenge of delivering this innovation we will bring into the correct perspective the amount of energy that is expended on ICT equipment. IT is not the problem, it is a significant part of the solution.
Yes, we need to bring our house in order, improving utilisation, reducing power consumption and improving cooling and other energy sinks in our data centres and desktops. But ultimately this is the side show. After all an unnecessary journey in a car is still unnecessary, whether or not the car is an hybrid running at 100mpg or a Ferrari running at 15mpg.
As an industry we need to act as one to bring real innovation and process to this. Let's learn from the leaders in the industry, many of whom are well advanced on both fronts, innovating in the delivery of services as well as the costs of delivery. I really think that the government should look at the benefits accruing to the NHS with the National Programme for IT, and then look again at the state of IT in central government and prepare for significant change. Yes it might take an investment of £10Bn to move forwards, but if planned and executed correctly the efficiency savings alone might pay for the benefits, let alone the potential of removing thousands of commuters from the daily treadmill by opening up new working practices. Its not just about switching equipment off!
Labels: Carbon Economy, Government, Green IT
