future of the data center

This article from Ars Technica discusses a talk over the summer by Merrill Lynch’s chief technology architect, Jeffrey Birnbaum on “stateless cloud computing” – most concretely on distributed file systems.
Birnbaum believes that one of the key foundational elements of a stateless computing environment is a networked storage system that enables ubiquitous availability of software. The [...]

Operating system research – 16 years perspective

It’s somewhat funny and somewhat sad to read this thread on the old USENET. Starting out with Andy Tanenbaum’s proposed list of accepted truths (most of which I thought wrong at the time)
GENERALLY ACCEPTED AS TRUE BY RESEARCHERS IN DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS

- The client-server paradigm is a good one
- Microkernels are the way to go
- UNIX [...]

Doing business with Avaya’s bizzare business model

Years ago, we got some equipment from Avaya – not terrible, but not wonderful. A junior tech with no signature authority signed a contract with them that says in big letters on the top “until 2005″. In 2007 we got rid of the equipment and now have spent over a year attempting to cancel the [...]

Reliable broadcast algorithms: after 20 years

New paper with short description of the Chang/Maxmchuk algorithm I have been championing for 20 years or more.