Data Centres Big and Small
Colocation Data Centers : A crowd-sourced map of datacentres
The map of datacentres around the world may not include corporate centres. Even so, the number is large and complements the Emersen report of 2011 which listed a mere 509147 datacentres.
My question is: which is more energy efficient? A kind of P2P mesh or a server/client database? Of course, the network of datacentres can writhe themselves into a mesh, but I’m thinking more along the lines of small servers (think smartphones or even below, but also above, like desktops) meshed together to store and then serve data upon command, in conjunction with other like servers. I think that the programming for this has to a degree been done now by BitTorrent (BT Sync).
Not all things local, small and held by the hands of the crowd (or bazaar) are more efficient than the cathedral of cathedrals, the datacentre. But some things may very well be, and for those things, perhaps the datacentre is not that slag of iron steaming in the arctic but held in common. And again, this is a question.
The Register’s Writers
I like reading El Reg and though other IT journo sites have gained prominence El Reg and its writers continue to be more provoking and fun to read than most. But, I’m curious (have been for a long time). Are there any women writing for the site?
U.S. sanctions and digital activists | Let them talk
U.S. sanctions and digital activists | Let them talk.
Sanctions are oddly easy to impose but seemingly hardly ever (if ever) effectual, at least in achieving the ostensible goals. This account gives an interesting take on one instance.
The Tyee – Canada, Leading the World into Paywalls
The Tyee – Canada, Leading the World into Paywalls.
Why is Canada opting for the paywall? For the same reasons, it seems, that shape so many of its economy:
“Picard said two factors are responsible for Canada’s leadership on paywalls: the commercial nature of Canadian journalism, and the high concentration of media ownership.”
Replace “journalism” and “media” with your preferred industry and the statement, if true here, will probably be true there. There is a virtue to an aggressive, flat market filled with interesting competition.
The Tyee – Andrew Nikiforuk: The Big Shift
The Tyee – Andrew Nikiforuk: The Big Shift
Journalism in Canada seems less aggressive than in the US, let alone the UK. But the Internet offers opportunity, and The Tyee is not asleep. The series on climate change, and how to negotiate it, is worth reading.
Freeform Dynamics: “Raising your game with Software as a Service: A guide for Small and Medium Businesses”
Freeform Dynamics – Published Content.
Title: Raising your game with Software as a Service
A guide for Small and Medium Businesses
First published: June 2013
By Dale Vile
I wonder how others view this report. I should make a disclaimer. I don’t see things in absolutes and do see a layered future, where a significant portion uses the Web in ways quite different from consumers or students. And I don’t see any current “stage” (desktop, cloud, or any other platform) exclusive of any other; or at least, I’d hope it would not be.
Since we are still moving to the notion of thinking of information as something other than factoids and mostly haven’t found communal information as a medium of creation and production, it doesn’t surprise me that, at least for now, the same old persists.
SMBs are tumbling into the cloud? Oh get real • The Channel
SMBs are tumbling into the cloud? Oh get real • The Channel.
The thrust is that far fewer small and medium businesses are using the cloud than, evidently, IT vendors (and others?) seem to believe. The immediate, if unstated, point is that the desktop continues to prevail, despite the claims of the ease and goodness of the cloud. (And this also explains, perhaps, Microsoft’s continued power as a profit machine, despite its sometimes risible flops as a consumer visionary.) What it also suggests is that the selling points for the “cloud” and its portable gizmos, are by and large more speculatively interesting than actually useful, at least for those companies whose size precludes needless risk. (For the individual consultant, such as I, the situation is different: I need mobility and am happy with the convenience the cloud, snoops and all, offers.)
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