Owning the Network commoditized, as Apple & Google’s Mobile browser devices with data centers drive customers

Newsweek has an article on Apple and Google’s move to wrestle control away from wireless carriers which commoditizes the network.  Verizon started the battle discussing the 3G network with videos like this.

ATT fires back with Apple’s help.

But, how many people really like being locked into one carrier for 2 years?  Did all this advertising really work or did it just piss off people more as they knew their networks didn’t work as well as advertised.  Apple and Google are changing the game by having users buy devices, and the network is a lower priority.  How many users who bought iPhones really wanted to be on the AT&T network? We’ll see if Google’s strategy to be on all the networks works vs. Apple.

Buh-Bye, Wireless Guys

How Silicon Valley conquered the carriers.

TECHNOLOGY
Handheld History

Remember life without your iPhone, Blackberry or Treo? From the Apple Newton to the newest Palm Pre, here's a look at the evolution of the personal digital assistant.

The Best of Apple's Innovations

By Daniel Lyons | NEWSWEEK

Published Feb 4, 2010

From the magazine issue dated Feb 15, 2010

I like to imagine that it happened this way: One day the computer guys in Silicon Valley looked over at the mobile-phone industry and realized those carriers have figured out the ultimate racket. They sell you a phone, lock you into a two-year contract, and anything you want to buy for the phone—accessories, ringtones, games—you have to buy from them. They control the whole thing, from top to bottom, and instead of getting a one-time sale, they get a recurring revenue stream. "Wow!" the computer guys said. "Why aren't we doing that? "

Well, now they are. Slowly but surely, companies like Apple and Google are wresting control away from the mobile carriers. Instead of a world where the companies that make the phones are just dumb hardware makers—silent partners who never get to touch the customer—Google and Apple are using the transition to smart phones as a way to flip the mobile-phone business model on its head.

But, as the article mentions this is just changing customer behavior from wireless carrier to device maker.

Eventually, this means that we'll all be able to buy a phone and run it on any network we want, which is what we should have been able to do all along. There's a risk, however, that we're fleeing one cage only to run straight into another, and the only thing that will change is the name of our jailer.

Part of the reason why Apple and Google have been able to do this is how well their device works with data centers that the company owns to provider a richer experience that consumers want.

RIM made the same mistake Windows Moblie did in having a browser that sucked.  Windows Mobile 7 will fix this problem, and RIM is joining as well.

The latest info we’ve heard has the browser being completely re-developed from the ground up and based on Webkit — a far cry from the POS Java relic BB’s currently run. RIM is gunning to take it even further than “just a webkit” browser however. Previously leaked documents and other claims from various sources have RIM tightly integrating their BIS/BES services and server side technology into the mix (which any Opera Mini users should know…) greatly speeds up browsing speeds, rending accuracy, and manages to drastically cut down on bandwidth.

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Google shares production data center for compute clusters

Google Research has a post reaching out to the academic community.

Google Cluster Data

Thursday, January 07, 2010 at 1/07/2010 08:11:00 AM

Posted by Joseph L. Hellerstein, Manager of Google Performance Analytics
Google faces a large number of technical challenges in the evolution of its applications and infrastructure. In particular, as we increase the size of our compute clusters and scale the work that they process, many issues arise in how to schedule the diversity of work that runs on Google systems.

The areas of interest for Google are:

We have distilled these challenges into the following research topics that we feel are interesting to the academic community and important to Google:

  • Workload characterizations: How can we characterize Google workloads in a way that readily generates synthetic work that is representative of production workloads so that we can run stand alone benchmarks?
  • Predictive models of workload characteristics: What is normal and what is abnormal workload? Are there "signals" that can indicate problems in a time-frame that is possible for automated and/or manual responses?
  • New algorithms for machine assignment: How can we assign tasks to machines so that we make best use of machine resources, avoid excess resource contention on machines, and manage power efficiently?
  • Scalable management of cell work: How should we design the future cell management system to efficiently visualize work in cells, to aid in problem determination, and to provide automation of management tasks?

Thee Google Cluster data is here.

This project is intended for the distribution of data of production workloads running on Google clusters.

The first dataset (data-1), provides traces over a 7 hour period. The workload consists of a set of tasks, where each task runs on a single machine. Tasks consume memory and one or more cores (in fractional units). Each task belongs to a single job; a job may have multiple tasks (e.g., mappers and reducers).

The data have been anonymized in several ways: there are no task or job names, just numeric identifiers; timestamps are relative to the start of data collection; the consumption of CPU and memory is obscured using a linear transformation. However, even with these transformations of the data, researchers will be able to do workload characterizations (up to a linear transformation of the true workload) and workload generation.

The data are structured as blank separated columns. Each row reports on the execution of a single task during a five minute period.

Time (int) - time in seconds since the start of data collection

JobID (int) - Unique identifier of the job to which this task belongs

TaskID (int) - Unique identifier of the executing task

Job Type (0, 1, 2, 3) - class of job (a categorization of work)

Normalized Task Cores (float) - normalized value of the average number of cores used by the task

Normalized Task Memory (float) - normalized value of the average memory consumed by the task

Please let us know about issues you have with the data.

So far there have been 230 downloads.

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google-cluster-data-1.csv.gz
7+ hours of workload traces from a Google production cluster
Dec 18
29.8 MB
230

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“green data center” search on google.cn vs google.com

Curious on how google.cn (google’s china version of search) works vs. google.com I tried “green data center”

On Google.com GreenM3 is #1.  On Google.cn GreenM3 is #6, but I still snuck in a #1 spot as the #1 entry is my old TechNet article on Green Datacenters.

Actually, now that  I look at the Google.com results, I have spot #1 and #2.  Pretty cool.

Here is google.com results.

Google

Results 1 - 10 of about 124,000,000 for green data center. (0.43 seconds)

Search Results

  1. Green Data Center Blog

    Dec 14, 2009 ... Monitoring, Modeling, Managing the Green Data Center.
    www.greenm3.com/ - Cached - Similar -

  2. Green IT: Build a Green Datacenter

    Companies around the world are beginning to think of ways to save energy and reduce costs, yet there is little guidance on how you can take action.
    207.46.16.252/en-us/magazine/2009.gr.datacenter.aspx - Cached - Similar -

  3. The Green Grid

    IIJ to Conduct Proof of Concept Testing for the Next Generation Eco Data Center: 25 November, 2009 | Comment now · The Green Grid and BCS to Collaborate on ...
    www.thegreengrid.org/ - Cached - Similar -

  4. News results for green data center


    DatacenterDynamics
    Digital Realty Trust Bolsters Green Datacenter Leadership With ...‎ -2 days ago

    We have achieved more green certifications for our facilities than any other company in the datacenter industry, and we continue to apply our expertise in ...

    CNNMoney.com (press release) - 34 related articles »

    Capstone Receives Follow-on Order From Texas Data Center‎ -CNNMoney.com (press release) - 8 related articles »

  5. Image results for green data center
      - Report images

  6. 10 Simple Steps to a Green Data Center - Trends

    Slideshow: Data centers require gobs of electricity to maintain. Dave Douglas, vice president of eco-responsibility at Sun Microsystems, shares his top tips ...
    www.cioinsight.com/.../10-Simple-Steps-to-a-Green-Data-Center-%5B2%5D/ -Cached -

google.cn

小提示： 只搜索中文(简体)结果，可在 设置 指定搜索语言

搜索结果

  1. Green IT: Build a Green Datacenter
      - [ 翻译此页 ]

    Companies around the world are beginning to think of ways to save energy and reduce costs, yet there is little guidance on how you can take action.
    207.46.16.252/en-us/magazine/2009.gr.datacenter.aspx - 网页快照 - 类似结果

  2. What is green data center? - Definition from Whatis.com - see also ...
      - [ 翻译此页 ]

    9 Dec 2008 ... A green data center is a repository for the storage, management, and dissemination of data in which the mechanical, lighting, electrical and ...
    searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/.../0,,sid80_gci1178582,00.html - 网页快照 - 类似结果

  3. 10 Simple Steps to a Green Datacenter - IT Management
      - [ 翻译此页 ]

    You can cut costs and make a global impact by joining the trend toward the eco-friendlydatacenter.
    www.itmanagement.com/.../10-steps-green-datacenter/ - 网页快照 - 类似结果

  4. Google 图片：green data center
      - 举报图片

  5. Green Data Center - 绿色数据中心- TT百科- TechTarget中国

    绿色数据中心（Green Data Center）是一个用于存储、管理和传播数据的储存库，其中的机械、照明、电气和计算机系统旨在将能源效率最大化和环境影响最小化。
    www.searchdatacenter.com.cn/word_2026.htm - 网页快照

  6. Going Green at Google | Clean Energy Initiatives
      - [ 翻译此页 ]

    Finally, we've begun to share our own data center best practices and are encouraging our ...Being "green" is essential to keeping our business competitive. ...
    www.google.com/corporate/green/datacenters/ - 网页快照 - 类似结果

  7. Apple Recruits eBay Data Center Executive Olivier Sanche, Can ...
      - [ 翻译此页 ]

    10 Aug 2009 ... I have been lucky to meet eBay's Sr. Director, Data Center Services & Strategy, Olivier Sanche at a variety of data center events and ...
    www.greenm3.com/.../can-apple-change-data-centers-the-way-they-changed-cell-phone-and-media-players-apple-recruits-ebay-data-center-exe... - 网页快照

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Have crimes been committed against Google in China? Forcing Google to improve its self-defense and be willing to fight

The official Google blog has a post titled “A new approach to China.”  And, after reading you could say Google has been a victim of a crime trying to steal intellectual property.  But what does Google do?

A new approach to China

1/12/2010 03:00:00 PM

Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident--albeit a significant one--was something quite different.


First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses--including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors--have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.


Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.


Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users' computers.

Google has taken action by improving its self – defense skills.

We have already used information gained from this attack to make infrastructure and architectural improvements that enhance security for Google and for our users. In terms of individual users, we would advise people to deploy reputable anti-virus and anti-spyware programs on their computers, to install patches for their operating systems and to update their web browsers.

And, they have taken the action of drawing international attention to the crime.

We have taken the unusual step of sharing information about these attacks with a broad audience not just because of the security and human rights implications of what we have unearthed, but also because this information goes to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech.

Which is common with environmental groups who draw public attention.

Google’s blog has 619k subscribers.

image

I would bet Google has chosen this issue as a battle to prove its motto “do no evil.”  And, Google probably knows it couldn’t fairly compete against Baidu.

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Google Electric Company is a popular concept, but most are missing energy storage as the strategy

I am having fun writing ideas on the GreenM3 blog.  There is so much going on now in the Green area and data centers, I can’t keep up with all the news. One of the latest news stories is Google filing with FERC for energy company status for Google Energy, creating a Google Electric company.

Google Energy

Energy

I’ve been watching the news to see if there is any particular insightful comments.  I wrote about the concept of Google Electric company in Nov 28, 2007.  Yes, 2 years ago.

Nov 28, 2007

Google Electric Company - Core Competency?

Larry Dignan on http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=7149

Wrote a blog about the issue of Google getting into the energy business. This somehow seems like it is in Google's DNA when faced with make vs buy, they favor make.  They've done this with their OS and Servers they run their platform on.  Now, they are extending out to make their own electricity.

Google News does a good job of showing the various discussions.

image

I have a few friends who work at Google and it easy to run thought experiments of what is not being discussed.

Thought experiments are devices of the imagination used to investigate the nature of things. We need only list a few of the well-known thought experiments to be reminded of their enormous influence and importance in the sciences: Newton's bucket, Maxwell's demon, Einstein's elevator, Heisenberg's gamma-ray microscope, Schrödinger's cat. The same can be said for their importance in philosophy. Much of ethics, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind is based firmly on the results of thought experiments.

What I think Google has seen is energy storage from renewable energy sources – PV, Solar, and wind is essential.  I joked and questioned Google as an electric company 2 years ago, but a lot has happened in two years, and it makes sense from one point of view that Google' learn to store information as it stores information (indexing the web) and delivers higher value information when users need it.  To do this with electricity, Google needs to be able to buy and sell electricity.

As the largest consumer of data center electricity in the world, except for the US Fed Gov’t, Google is in a unique situation to use information to deliver higher value electricity. 

Also, Google Energy’s expertise as a power company will allow it to figure out how to lower its energy costs and carbon impact over the long run.  This is a not a new concept and has been used by industries like pulp and paper mills with their own power generation and water supplies.  Which fits in Google buying the pulp and paper mil in Finland.

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