Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Client vs. Server
The tension between central and distributed computing is inherent to all software issues. Should the actual core computations and storage be performed at the core of the network (server) or should they be performed by an autonomous client at the edge?
Computing started off server based - mainframes. The PC revolution was all about moving computing to the edge, due to a fall in the price of FLOPS and storage relative to the price of communication (for a given amount of bandwidth).
Bandwidth is now cheaper than ever - so there will be an inevitable shift of computing to the core. So we have to look out for those technologies that make it easier.
Google Suggests is exactly the kind of implementation that will help browser-based solutions move computing back to the core.
Computing started off server based - mainframes. The PC revolution was all about moving computing to the edge, due to a fall in the price of FLOPS and storage relative to the price of communication (for a given amount of bandwidth).
Bandwidth is now cheaper than ever - so there will be an inevitable shift of computing to the core. So we have to look out for those technologies that make it easier.
Google Suggests is exactly the kind of implementation that will help browser-based solutions move computing back to the core.
