IBM plans to build a sizable business by bringing Google-style computing to mainstream corporate customers.
The IBM strategy, to be announced Thursday, seeks to exploit the technical work and commercial interest in large data centers that can be run more efficiently, searched for information and programmed from remote locations over the Internet.
This model of Internet-based supercomputing is known as cloud computing because vast stores of information and processing resources can be tapped from afar–by a laptop personal computer, cell phone or other device.
IBM is calling its initiative Blue Cloud. Most of the basic software needed for cloud computing is open source, meaning that the code is freely available and can be modified by users. The hardware used in the data centers is typically many thousands of industry-standard server computers, powered by processors made by Intel or Advanced Micro Devices, and produced by many hardware makers.
Microsoft is in the early stages of a plan that will see virtually its entire lineup of underlying Internet services opened up to developers, the software maker made clear this week.
In addition to making available its existing services, such as mail and instant messaging, Microsoft also will create core infrastructure services, such as storage and alerts, that developers can build on top of. It’s a set of capabilities that have been referred to as a “Cloud OS,” though it’s not a term Microsoft likes to use publicly.
“Cloud-centric is probably a better way to say it because Cloud OS makes it sound like it is only running on the cloud,” said Brian Hall, general manager of Windows Live. “A lot of the data, a lot of the apps, a lot of the interesting things are on the edge. They are on the PCs. They are on the Xboxes. They are on the phones.”
But, quibbles over nomenclature aside, Microsoft made clear this week that it aims to play the same role on the Internet that it plays today on the desktop–that of providing its own applications as well as the underlying plumbing and tools that developers use to build their products. (more…)
Maybe you’d be better off if you didn’t spend so much time looking at your watch.
That, loosely speaking, is the rationale behind a significant change at the heart of Linux that programmers hope will make the open-source operating system more efficient. New versions of the operating system are being endowed with a “tickless” kernel that forsakes traditional computer time-keeping in an effort to keep the processor in a somnolent, low-power state.
Power efficiency is something every operating system could use. For Linux, efficiency could make the operating system more competitive with Windows on portable computers by extending battery life, and on servers that typically run 24 hours a day, it could cut growing power costs.
The tickless kernel isn’t the only effort under way. Intel released software called PowerTop in May that makes it easier to find out what software is needlessly keeping a computer’s processor on high alert. (more…)
