Are you ready for Edge Computing in 2017? I started the discussion in 2010

Tom Krazit at Geekwire posts on edge computing. https://www.geekwire.com/2017/setting-edge-cloud-experts-sketch-edge-computing-will-evolve/

“The last ten years marked a centralization of computing, in which we moved away from relying on our individual computers to process our orders toward a world in which lightweight mobile apps and web services backed by powerful cloud data centers took over.

At Structure 2017 in San Francisco on Tuesday, it was pretty clear things are moving back in the other direction.

Several of the sessions on the opening day of the venerable cloud computing conference addressed the growing certainty that computing power is moving back to intelligent connected devices on the “edge” of the network. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made it a key theme of his opening keynote at Microsoft Build in May, and momentum toward this shift would appear to be growing.”

Data Center Frontier posts on who the players are. https://datacenterfrontier.com/edge-computing-101/

“Edge computing is a hot topic right now, and holds the potential to alter the geography of the data center industry, as infrastructure adapts to support the Internet of Things, virtual reality and connected cars.

As these technologies develop and gain traction, a number of companies are targeting the challenges address challenges and opportunities of deploying capacity at the edge of the network. Here’s our guide to the new players on the edge, which includes both startups and established names in the data center sector.”

You can run a google news search and find “edge computing” comes on a regular basis.

A few people have have contacted me to tell me about their efforts. I tell them I discussed this idea years ago. Here is a post from Feb 2011 where I wrote about DC Containers at cell towers. http://www.greenm3.com/gdcblog/2011/2/8/50-lower-carbon-footprint-with-new-cell-tower.html?rq=Cell%20tower

In 2010 is when I realized that compute was going to move to reduce the latency issues and network performance. The practice of having Points of Presence and Content Distribution Network was well established, but there was still an interesting opportunity to get close to devices. Since 2010 the growth of mobile devices has replaced the desktop and notebook use case.

The idea of edge computing is not new. It is just more popular. Edge computing is just one piece in the overall system and how it gets used takes time to figure out. I have had 7 years to think about it. We will see what others try.

Example applying abstraction to IT asset management to make it more powerful

Years and years ago I went to the IAITAM with friends from 3 of the big 5 data center companies (GAFAM) who all work on asset management. IAITAM is the International Association of IT Asset Managers. At the conference I realized that what most of the presentations and users were focused on was how to count assets, record, and report on a regular schedule to align with financial systems. This isn't quite what I think of asset management, but it is a critical part.

A couple of weeks ago I was watching a great presentation by Cheng Lou "on The Spectrum of Abstraction" and Barbara Liskov "The Power of Abstraction"

JavaScript and the React community have evolved over the years through all the ups and downs. This talk goes over the tools we've come to recognize, from Angular, Ember and Grunt, all the way go Gulp, Webpack, React and beyond, and captures all these in a unifying mental framework for reasoning in terms of abstraction levels, in an attempt to make sense of what is and might be happening.

Barbara Liskov, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT, MA This lecture has been videocast from the Computer Science Department at Duke. The abstract of this lecture and a brief speaker biography is available at: http://research.csc.ncsu.edu/colloquia/seminar-post.php?id=308

So what happens if you apply the ideas that Cheng and Barbara shared on asset management? How do you apply abstraction to asset management? Start with abstraction in software engineering. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstraction_(software_engineering) 

Break the asset management problem. One part is counting things. You could count the number of HP DL380 in an area, but since you are counting DL380s for a depreciation schedule you need to identify individual DL380s not just the total number so you need a unique ID system. Most would apply an asset tag. Maybe a bar code. Thinking they are being more advanced by using RFID tags. The flaw with this method is if you apply the asset tags incorrectly, they fall off, or make data entry error in the original record creation it can be extremely hard to catch the error and you are counting incorrectly for the life of the assets. So let's abstract the asset identification problem to be a virtual asset ID that can automated and is near perfect in its identification method. Oh and make it so there is a REST API to identify an asset programmatically.

If you can do all the above, then change the way assets are counted to be run by microservice. Counting each DL380 uniquely ID in a network means it is in a given space. If you know the network, then you know the location. If you had a perfect accounting of network cables, then you can determine location based on cables and network ports.

Now you may say this is way too hard for your legacy environment which is why people get stuck with asset tags and having people walk down the aisles reading bar codes. The Art of Abstraction can be applied to parts of the problem. if you started on Jan 1, 2017 with all new assets, then at least those can be counted with an abstraction approach. Wouldn't you like to know there are areas of the data center where you have automated asset management? I would.

This is my plan to change asset management with abstraction. I left out of some details because this post would get way too long, but you get the idea.

Undersea Cable and The Law

On lawfareblog I found this post.  https://www.lawfareblog.com/cutting-cord-legal-regime-protecting-undersea-cables

“One of the U.S. economy’s most critical resources is the massive network of undersea cables that transverse the globe, carrying the overwhelming majority of all internet traffic. Over400fiber optic cablescarry99% of transoceanic data, providing the physical links that bind our digital world together. This global infrastructure rests almost entirely in the hands of private companies.

In the modern geopolitical environment, the vulnerability of undersea communications cables stands out as an acute cyber security concern. Relatively little attention, however, has focused on the legal frameworks that govern the networks of glass and steel that form the literal backbone of our internet. This post lays out the threats to communications cables and the existing international laws protecting cables from intentional damage.”

This article has some great details that is hard to find.  

One suggestion that I didn’t see in the article was to work with a Telecom in a country who has decades of experience and the majority of times the country has an interest to protect the undersea cables.

In the article they referenced Microsoft’s Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer call for a Digital Geneva Convention. https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2017/02/14/need-digital-geneva-convention/

1 week with iPhone X, studying Face Tracking with ARKit

It’s been a week with my iPhone X and I am drilling into technical details of what iOS 11 does with iPhone X. One of the big features is the facial recognition. Curious I watched an Apple Developer video on “Face Tracking with ARKit”  https://developer.apple.com/fall17/601

Everyone focus on the 1st one. Facial recognition and doing things like Animoji  

With expressions tracking you could use the Face Tracking as UI input.  

Here is where ARFaceAnchor can be used to show position and orientation of the users face, 3D topology, facial expression. Everyone is a bit different in how they reach, but they are in general consistent in their facial expressions. 

If you don’t think you can do this check out this list of facial tracking shapes. 

In operations lighting has a direct impact to the quality, accuracy, and speed of work. And, you could use Facial Tracking to get a reading of the Lighting in the environment. 

And last with the microphone support for Animoji you can use the same method to capture audio as well. 

Moderating Panels at Structure Conference 2017 as a storyteller

For years I have studied and valued the skills of a storyteller. An example of a story told well applied to the data center industry is the story of In Tents Computing. The story was originally written in 2008. It has been long enough that I can share some of the inner parts of the story. One of my friends wrote the story and she is a great writer, working at Microsoft for years in a range of roles. The first week of her job at Microsoft we met when she worked as a paralegal in the Microsoft legal team that supported the Microsoft font group where I worked. Does that sound boring? It was, but it is important to get fonts done and cleared by legal to ship Windows.

Back to the story referenced https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/the_power_of_software/2008/09/19/intense-computing-or-in-tents-computing/. The engineers doing the work were Christian Belady and Sean James, and Mike Manos said the team did some interesting work and it could be a good blog post. The excitement in the writing department came when Slashdot picked up the story https://m.slashdot.org/story/107413 and many other trade publications. What was funny to Mike Manos, the writer, and myself is how there was so much trouble caused in the company. Why? Because on the same day that the In Tents computing blog post went up Microsoft VP Debra Chapraty was at the opening ceremony of their 2nd data center in San Antonio and instead of the news being about San Antonio and the Microsoft executives, the news was discussing servers put in tents.

Telling a good story can be powerful and it is what i keep in mind when moderating presentations at Structure Conference.  The three presentations I am moderating are as follows. 

These may seem boring, but not nearly as boring as discussing fonts. :-) Athough to be fair fonts did make it into a Ted Conference where Matthew Carter discussed the crazy idea of why we created Verdana. At the end of this post is Matthew telling the story of Verdana. Stories work, but are so hard to do well.

Why Reaching Zero Data Centers is So Challenging

Juniper began its journey to transition its corporate applications to the cloud six years ago. While the company expected to complete that transition this year, the task at hand isn’t as easy as it sounds. There have been many takeaways and lessons learned that Bob’s team has bundled into a “playbook” – outlining best practices on how to achieve zero physical data centers, how to overcome the hurdles and why the process is more difficult than many realize. In this discussion, Bob will share why it’s so hard to get to zero data centers and detail how your company can successfully see the light (i.e. the cloud) at the end of the tunnel.

Speaker:
Bob Worrall

SVP, Chief Information Office

Kubernetes as a Hybrid Cloud Platform: Federating Across Public, Private and Edge.

Is it another workload orchestration technology, or is there something deeper driving Kubernetes adoption? Numerous factors have contributed to its success, including its origins in Google's infrastructure, the open source community contributing momentum, and real world deployments that speak clearly to its value. One use case stands out in terms of its relevance to the enterprise: Kubernetes as a hybrid cloud platform. In this panel distinguished leaders discuss this and offer insights for future evolution in the space.

Speakers:
Sirish Raghuram
Co-Founder and CEO, Paltform9
Vibu Pratap
VP of Engineering, Veritas
Allan Naim

Product Manager - Kubernetes, Google

Containers, Containers, Containers: Lessons from Liberating Enterprise Workloads

Everywhere you look, it's all about containers. It's clear containers will be the path forward for application virtualization and the convenience it brings to IT app management and workload transportability. In this panel we talk to three of the leading technologists in the industry who are putting themselves and their customers behind a container rich future. Come learn what containers will really mean for you.

Speakers:
Alex Polvi
CEO, CoreOS
Madhura Maskasky

Co-Founder and Platform9