“Recently, things have been changing significantly”.  A wonderful statement by myself.   This has probably been said since Classical times.  If I had one way to describe today it would simply be “connected”.  The term “6 degrees of seperation” was\ still is a good concept, however it is a little outdated.  If you wiki it, you will come up with headlines “shrinking world” and “small world”.  Now it is more like “6 clicks of seperation”, and a “growing world”, and an “infinate cloud”.  We have developed a new global universe and with that we are all contributing.  By reading this, you are a stat somewhere.

Around 2005 I distincly remember recommending some clients wait for the coming  64bit OS to allow for increased RAM.  It was great advice for some, and it was not so great for others.  Not everyone fits in the requirement of the vision of tomorrow.  This was a lesson for me. Some are dependant on their skill sets and technology can be outdated, however it may work for them.  An example is the fax or facsmile technology.  It is still used.  Communication is another example reflective on technology today.

Back to 64 bit,  a conference I went to inspired me.  A major global hardware firm said that they would only support 64 bit systems into the near  future.  I learned an important lesson in this year.  Firstly, most people want stuff now, but more importantly some are willing to wait.  People are willing to wait for anything if the future gives a glimpse of something better.  An example is 4G phones/ tablets.  Do we wait, will it be worth it, when will I realise a benefit?  The answer is probably in 1-2 years time IMO.

iPhone 5. anyone?  How many people are using Siri?   I guarantee there are a number of people out there on their ipone 3G looking up the progress of iPhone 5 almost daily.  They are loyal, even with the deception and delays.  Equally people are not buying the Lumia 800 because they are waiting for the Lumia 900.  Technology is a curse on all of us and it makes time go fast by waiting, by wanting.  The truth is, like buying a pair of sunglasses before long we are going back to Risky Bunsiness and Tom Cruise is cool again even with a dark cloud over his head in Scientology.  Indeed that is me under those dark shades, as nerdy as ever, and feeling as cool as ever,  in summer, I have those glasses now much alike to the Oakley Frogskins in their day.

So compaing the 64bit transition to the 4G network is actually miniscule.  The 64bit transformation allowed for virtualisation to really take off.  The 4G network allows us to download faster.  This is important as content becomes heavier. I still wonder why my 8 mega pixel phone camera still takes pretty crappy photos on most occasions.   Then I email them and they take longer as they are larger…. I am no photographer, but something does not add up.  There is not many fields you can be a technician in without touching the cloud these days.

Don’t get excited, just understand what it means, realise the benefits (if there are any).  An example apposed to virtualisation is MS office.  Why bother upgrading to 2010 from 2007?  What Word or Excel document can you possibly do better from?  Comes down to visuals.  Everyone wants to look at numbers in pictures.  Make intangible services a visual product.

Remember the mini disk fad.  Blue Ray won’t last long.  Take my word for it.  Everything will be digital and on the cloud soon.  Then privacy will come back into the eqaution and we will not want some things on the cloud anymore.  The cloud is our best ally and our worst enemy.  Facebook is an Insurers dream, and LinkedIn helps iron out the con artists.

Are we connected?  click……

So technology is pretty amazing.  We can make these bits of chips pretty small but what are they actually doing?  What does a CPU mean to me?  What is a cache? What is a socket? What is a core? What is a thread? What does it all mean?

This is not my area of expertise so it is more a learning exercise for me.  The main reason for this is the re-introduction of virtualisation (and now maturity) and with that companies charging licensing fees based on the number of physical CPU’s and\or associated cores.   This is logical as suddenly hardware can do more and with that companies are investing more in high end hardware servers to save money on software costs.  So suddenly one physical piece of tin (and other engineered plastics and metals) come together to produce multiple virtual machines and simultaneous software applications.

Lets start with cores :

2 cores dual core

4 cores quad core

6 cores hexa core

8 cores octa core .. you get the drift.

In my mind at this point in time, I understand this : A single core processor can allocate resources to one process at one time.  A dual core processor can simultaneously process 2 applications at the same time, or process 2 requirements within one piece of software at one time.  I know this is simplistic but work with me through this.  So sticking with a dual core processor.  If a database does two distinct functions, and then a core can be utilised by either function making one software product work twice as fast given a consistent speed.

Here is the thing, if I am paying for software licensing fees per CPU socket, then if I purchase hardware on a budget,  say dual core cpus then effectively I have 4 simulatenous working processors.  If I invested in 2 8 core CPU’s in which case I can have 16 simulatenous processors running at the same time then effectively from one software license fee I can achieve a lot more (if no costs where associated to performance).  It is a difficult task for vendors as they look to maximise revenue through  dependance on hardware.  They get a scalable model.  The bigger the audience, the more number crunching, the bigger the fees.  Not just buy it and use it, if you are doing well, we want to do well with you.

For virtualisation I understand the fees are going to be there.  It is just hard to understand where it ends.  It is just the speed at which numbers can be crunched simultaneously.  It still comes down to the fact that if you want to go fast, you have to pay a premium.  At the moment it is CPU usage (with RAM and storage).  It is all a work in progress, as software has been the big cost since Bill Gates vision became reality.

Now for some research.

An interesting article at the start :

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2005/05/big_shifts_in_t_1.html

An interesting thread highlighting the confusion in 2009

http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.786364.16

Good article pointing out the future : Microsoft changing direction

http://databases.about.com/od/sqlserver/a/sql_server_2012_licensing.htm

The cores represent processors however this is still not realised by most vendors.  It would be sensible for firms to lock in contracts based on per CPU if they had more cores per CPU than 4.  When Microsoft release SQL 2012 eveyone in the software industry will be charging in number of cores and not CPUs.  After the physical environments are getting merged now. with faster connection speeds.  The future is mulitple servers across multiple datacentres (almost like RAID hdd’s),  the machinery becomes irrelevant but the usage of hardware will be a cost.  Information technology is becoming a currency of trade.  It is almost like a tax for doing business.

Speed becomes dependant on the network connection,  Sure, the actual end product is a result from processing, however the real time achievement comes from connectivity.  How do we predict the future? Speed to the cloud.  For a couple of years now we have been pawns, especially when it comes to virtualisation.  The benefits are real, however the profits to the big IT companies are real aswell.  The change in technology has already happened.  The bottleneck in HDD speeds has been resolved with SSD’s, now the bottleneck is connectivity.  Remote space has the requirement for symmetric services (unless simply dependant on terminal services technology).

The reality is that the bits of tin in a data centre are going to be simply resources available from a portal.  Dashboards, portals and live feeds are the demand now.  The resources to utilize these are the costs.  These resources need to simply have a fast symmetric service.

Any business that will survive has one essential requirement.  A connection to the public cloud (internet).  Despite marketing attempts to alter perceptions the internet is still just the open source cloud it always was. The term “cloud”, helps IT  people draw diagrams defining who has access to what. Many clouds pretend to be private, however they are merely encrypted tunnels.

It is a communication tool, it is a work tool, it is our best database and wealth of knowledge (indeed, it is an IT consultants best friend).  The trouble is at one point in time things will fail.  We must accept this fact.   There have been numerous cases in the past and there will be numerous cases in the future.  At any given time, in any given location the internet will go down.

We often make decisions based on money, and when things go wrong we understand the real value of an intangible product such as data, communication, and research.  The established worldly term in cloud computing is a perfect example which is essentially services on the internet.  Potentially, if the internet goes down…..no I am wrong here: expecting failure tells me the internet will go down, and when the internet goes down, we will be blind.

Buzz Lightyear

Mayday, mayday, come in Star Command. Send Reinforcements. Star Command… Do you copy?

Cloud Computing.  “Remote computing” has come a long way, from controlling computers to controlling apps.  Now we want apps on multiple devices.  Take email: we now want it on our computers, phones, tablets, lounge room tv’s.  We are extending this to social media, and this is defining business and the cloud.  Our usernames for social media require an email identity (internet passport).  It does not matter how we connect, we just need to be connected.  From multiple devices, from anywhere and at anytime.  247365.

For me, it is a given that to be competitive we “need to be on the cloud”.  When it fails, our dependency on the cloud will be ours alone.  Ask yourself the question: how long can I be completely offline for (working without data)?   What data do we need to store locally to function when disaster occurs?

What is the internet?  “It is ports and tunnels!” *-favorite quote – points to anyone that can assist!

What is a tunnel?  “A tunnel is an underground passageway, completely enclosed except for openings for ingress and egress, commonly at each end.” -Wiki

Data travels in a meaningful format through a tunnel. For example, email applications listen for email down a tunnel that email traffic travels on.  It is a virtual path that information can enter and travel down, and it carries a signature or information to exit through a particular port.

What is a port?  “A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land.” – Wiki

A port is an entry and an exit point for a tunnel, in which the tunnel represents a distinct pathway for which data becomes meaningful through direction of infrastructure in a network.

Picture a telephone network.  We have phones with phone numbers (or phone addresses), and extension numbers (which are similar from company to company – usually single or double digit).  Externally, we usually have one address for the terminating line.  This is the phone number.  From there software can direct the voice data.

Picture a computer network.  We have computers with internet addressess, and extension numbers (which are similar from company to company – usually  192,168.x.x).  Externally, we usually have one address for the terminating line.  This is the Wide Area Network (WAN) address.  From there software can direct the data.  Companies can have a static IP address meaning they can always find their location.  (Not touching dynamic addresses today).

If you want to understand the internet, we have to understand gateways.  A gateway is simply a modem.  This holds the connection.  We like to think that our homes are private, the internet is so big who knows.  The reality is that the internet is the best tracking mechanism since confessions at Church.  Privacy can be controlled to an extent, but make no mistake Big Brother is watching.  What happens on the internet…