Joe, re: the once and future server farm.
If one were to believe nothing else concerning the new economies afforded by optical, they should at least put their money on this aspect. We're going to go back to the glass house, and this time its efficacy will be made known with a vengeance. It could be in the suburban data center, or in a colocated server entity of the type we've associated with web hosting sites. The same principles will apply, regardless. Only, one will be inhouse, while the other is a form of outsourcing.
New processing cores will connect to desktop user communities, or to wherever, photonically, shattering many of the design taboos of the past. Thus, shattering many of the high and sometimes prohibitive price tags that were previously associated with conventional means of transport.
At the same time, business re-engineering will be facilitated to new heights, through the elmination of many distance related criteria which now require end users to be within the 100 meter reach of equipment closets. Well, it's not as simple as all that, or how I make it sound in that last sentence, but that's the general idea. There's a lot more to it. See the links below for a more complete treatment on some of the enablers and inhibitors at play.
I wrote those posts in SI the other day, similar to the one you referenced from the Times in your upstream post. They dealt with some of the ways new fiber economies will impact enterprise and carrier infrastructure designs. Fortunately, my post was written several days prior to the NY Times piece. But they both some of the reflect natural outgrowths which any competent and forward looking IT organization can recognize, provided that they have an open mind and are not in the mode of protecting their personal investments in the status quo. I would like to write more on this potential barrier aspect to optical progress, in the future.
Message 9553750
I later went on to clarify what I meant by Terabit Network Elements, at:
Message 9592130 ]
Comments welcome.
Regards, Frank Coluccio |
