THE THIRD WAVE, THE CLOUD, AND THE WORLD COMMUNITY GRID

If the First wave of computing used text & data services such as e-mail & FTP, the Second wave added images, sound & video to improve ease of use and the experience. The Third wave as envisioned by futurists is where “The Network is the Computer.” Think about virtualized storage where your precious photos, music & data is stored, managed, and protected remotely so you (or someone you trust and authorize) can access it from anywhere. Your house could even burn down, and your data would be safe.

Think about Cloud computing services and the World Community Grid. The University of Texas is already a world leader in the supercomputing community, with its Ranger system. But what if the power of thousands (or millions) of otherwise idle or lightly used PCs could share their resources to help solve the world’s most complex computing problems. With work split into small pieces, research time could be reduced from years to months, but data access speed and the need to transfer extremely large datasets quickly is the limiting factor.

BIG Broadband with gigabit speeds could benefit humanity, especially if applied in a city like Austin. Sample supercomputing projects, or ones exploiting massively parallel computing, include the Human Proteome Folding Project, UNAIDS – the joint United Nations program to fight HIV & AIDS, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence through analysis of radio telescope data.

Posted: March 13, 2010: 4:59 PM