Jim Lawrence
accessd at shaw.ca
Mon Jan 2 12:41:22 CST 2012
This year is going to an exciting year in the computer world. The news around such databases using Map Reduce and this NewSQL. Though very interesting, it is not the full or even the main story. For example, the Hadoop project is not so much a database engine as much as an distributive application engine. There are products out there that leave out the database component and have focused on just the DAE part. The current leader in this generalist technology is ERWIN (http://erwin.com/) but there are many more such applications... Check out Node.js (http://nodejs.org/), tuned for your web servers, which not only will load balance, between the CPUs on your server or Cores but has application distributive capabilities across all networked computers. This of course is just the start. When the new Raspberry computer goes on sale later this year for an estimated $35.00 (http://www.raspberrypi.org/) ...plus the cost of an SD card. Much of this new technology is being transferred to the Cloud and to Corporate interests and profits but for those who want a degree of privacy or wish to "roll-their-own" system there are now the tools to do it; all it needs is some bright and dedicated developer to assemble all the components. Imagine if you will, a network of 10 interconnected computers, like the Raspberry, using a distributive application engine, add packages like FreeNAS (http://www.freenas.org/) or any other Open NAS product to handle a hard drive cluster, you would have quite a package. It could be possible to create a network, using a few 100 watts or even just batteries that would give a 10 to 15K HP Proliant system, a run for its money, for just an outlay of a thousand. Intriguing? Jim