Continuing on yesterdays theme of vrtualization supplanting operating systems,
I came accross an article today on Information Week titled
Hypervistors May Replace Operating Systems as King of the Data Center.

I’ve written for some time now that the role of the operating system is changing, as I noted in yesterday’s post. However, I have trouble with the author’s premise in this story. As I commented there:

“Hypervisors possess neither of the two factors make the OS strategic. First, software applications are not written directly to APIs specific to the hypervisor. Instead applications still run on Windows, Solaris, Linux or FreeBSD. Since all the development tools come with the OS, that seems unlikely to change. Second, users are beginning to understand that managing a data center full of VMs is a nightmare, prompting one blogger to refer to virtualization as the ghetto of the data center. This has created a market for VM management tools as the acquisition of Xensource yesterday points out.”

Last November, after a somewhat contentious discussion with 3tera, the folks at Redmonk made a post titled Do Operating Systems Matter? The source of the controversy was our contention that users would use drag and drop appliances containing application middleware like LAMP stacks or even proprietary software like DB2 or WebShpere without concerning themselves about what OS was installed in each appliance. Being hands-on types, the Redmonk folks were skeptical of our claim, but closed the post with an open mind.

This old thread came to mind today when a google alert lead me to
an InfoQ post on the topic of virtual appliances.
It brought home for me how in a few short months, what was controversial seems to have become commonly accepted.
More ISVs see the virtual appliance as an opportunity rather than threat. rPath even won
Innovation Idea of the Year from Softwareceo.com for their appliance model.

So what’s the implication? Is this the end game now that PC World quotes Mendel Rosenblum of VMware answering whether the appliance model is a threat to OS vendors as “If I were in their shoes … I think the answer is yes.”

As systems like 3tera’s AppLogic make high level functions accessible within appliances the opportunity exists for OS vendors as well as ISVs to integrate these functions into their systems, creating smart appliances. So, just what would a smart appliance do? Stay tuned . . .

Time is asymetric in a startup. The future, and deadlines, come at you at a blinding pace while the past stretches behind you punctuated by releases, launches, hirings and meetings.

Last week this was driven home when we retired the first AppLogic grid that saw the light of day outside engineering.
For 18 months my demo grid, comprised of a few servers at RackForce was the first grid hundreds of customers experienced - most via WebEx.

Time marches on . . .

Marc Andreessen has an interesting (if long) post titled
Age and the Entrepreneur in which he reviews Dean Simonton’s research into the links between age and creativity in various endeavors. Having done a number of startups over the years I read with keen interest to see what he concluded for my future. Alas, the posting was just part 1, so I’ll need to wait until his next post.

IMHO most posts on this oft discussed topic miss the most important point. Entrepreneurship is a state of mind. It’s a personality type. Marc quotes Dr Simonton on this point:

” . . . those who generate the most contributions at the end of a career also tend to have begun their careers at earlier ages . . . ”

In other words, the traits which make someone an entrepreneur should express themselves early, and that those talents don’t necesarily peak in their youth.

I’ve been asked a few times recently about our position on “green tech” and more specifically The Green Grid. Are we a member? Are we working on green tech. Does utility computing have a roll to play?

My answer always starts with “how much time do you have?”

We are VERY concerned about the power that data centers consume. It’s both socially responsible and makes both good business sense for our partners. Plus, frankly, discussing mega-watts with our partners sometimes gets a little surreal. When I grew up 10MW was a power plant. Now it’s just a data center upgrade.

That said, however, projects like the Green Grid, IMHO, are more marketing than substance at the moment.
Recently their ‘08 road map was covered by GreenerComputing:

” . . . the Green Grid plans to start conducting three studies this year to document existing energy efficiency standards and metrics, update its current study on data center efficiency metrics, and identify the requirements for collecting and aggregating data center power consumption data.”

Certainly those studies are worthwhile, but 3tera’s participation would have little impact there. Rather, we’re working in the trenches. And that’s why I ask folks how much time they have before starting this conversation. It’s also why this will be just the first post in a thread on this topic.

At the core of the problem of data center power use is a fundamental assumption - that human beings interact with servers.
If you question that assumption take a look at Sun’s Project Black Box. A third of the space is dedicated to a hallway. Why?
Because it’s assumed that users will want to walk in and work on the servers. Everything in the standard data center environment today is driven from this single assumption and it has huge implications.

Consider HVAC for instance. It’s commonly accepted that a great deal of energy is consumed to keep data centers cool because it’s necesary for the reliable operation of the servers. That’s not really true. Yes, if we turned the air conditioning off servers would start failing, but that’s not the whole picture. Most components in the server, especially critical high power components like processors, would run much better at lower temperatures than are maintained in the data center. In reality, the temperature of the data center is set more for human comfort than for efficient and reliable operation of the servers. Once you’ve digested that little nugget you can tackle the question of whether air is really the best operating environment for electrical components. We’ll deal with that in a future post.

Breaking the assumption that human beings need to interact with servers in any way is at the heart of utility computing, and this step is critical to moving forward with green data ceners (if that isn’t an oxy moron). Once free of that concept, the power savings that can be realized won’t be ten percent or twenty percent, but rather an order of magnitude. It’ll take years and numerous companies working together but the course will be set.

So, yes, I do see 3tera as having a role in green tech and we’re thinking about it and working on it everyday. In the coming weeks I’ll post on some comming features directly addressing power usage plus a few more thoughts on what comes next.