CFO Europe Selects Grid as a Top Technology of 2002

Reflection – written December 29 , 2001

CFO Europe magazine selected Grid Computing as a Top Technology of 2002. In the story, the magazine reviews ten technologies which they believe to be most important. They say that IT budgets are tight, but there are some technologies that companies can’t ignore. Anthony Sibillin reveals what every savvy CFO should have on their radar screen.

I was pleased to be able to talk to CFO Europe about what IBM is doing in a number of key areas — especially in Grid Computing — and they included some of my comments which I have appended below.

The full story is here.

3. GRID COMPUTING

GRID AND BEAR IT

Over the past few months, IBM has been busy unveiling several iterations of its

“Grid” computing architecture, a system that tackles complex problems by

harnessing the processing power of many computers connected by a high-speed

network.

In its early days, such power is likely to come in handy for genetic research,

weather modelling and other traditional supercomputing tasks. IBM is building a

Grid for America’s National Science Foundation, which will perform 13.6 trillion

calculations per second, making it 1,000 times faster than IBM’s chess-playing

Deep Blue. According to John Patrick, vice-president of internet technology at the

US computer giant, Grid computing should begin entering mainstream corporate

computing next year. Among the sectors that have an immediate need for Grid are

the pharmaceutical, energy and car industries.

For firms that shy away from the expense of building their own Grid, IBM points

out that its Grid can be used like a power plant, dispensing services as needed.

Patrick says the business case for such a utility-like approach is a strong one for

two reasons. First, the Grid offers economies of scale. Second, companies will be

spared the unpredictable performance of public networks, such as the internet,

because the Grid is designed to handle spikes in demand.

While IBM’s own global services unit is a logical candidate to operate a Grid

utility, it faces competition from niche start-ups like Cluster Solutions of France

(financial services) and Swiss-based Gridcomputer (life sciences).

Note: This was originally posted at ibm.com/patrick on 12/29/2001 but there is so much going on in the Grid Computing space I thought it was worth adding to my weblog as part of my web site consolidation project.

Content for Kids

In Net Attitude, I wrote quite a bit about the importance of talking to teenagers. They hold many of the clues as to what the Future of the Internet will be like. The kids totally get the Internet and studies have now proven what may be the obvious — nearly 90% of teenagers in America (and a growing percentage around the world) use the Internet as their preferred way to communicate. Email is prevalent, of course, but instant messaging is more the modus operandi, as I described in Net Attitude.

There is another dimension of kids and the Internet that is quite important. In addition to the conversations they are having, what is the content they are looking at? This is a great concern to many parents and teachers. Some have called for legislation and regulation. Whatever a person’s view about censorship may be, the vastness of the Internet and available content makes regulatory approaches impractical. There are basically two approaches to the issue. First is to look over the kids shoulders once in a while. Ask them what they are looking at. Talk to them about their values. Let them know you care. Ask them about their favorite web sites. Parent and teacher involvement is a very big factor.

There is also a technology approach that has great promise and is already having an impact. It is called PICS — the Platform for Internet Content Selection. PICS is based on work done by IBM Research, Microsoft, and other companies. It has been endorsed as a standard by the World Wide Web Consortium at MIT. Much like movies have ratings, web content can now have ratings. The PICS protocol, however, has much more granularity. Ratings have been established for sex, nudity, language, and violence. Each of these characteristics can have varying degrees of intensity. Parents and teachers can then make settings in the browser for the levels of each of the areas that each child is permitted to see.

The Internet Content Rating Association is a prime example of the use of the PICS standard to create an internationally acceptable labeling and filtering system widely in use on the web today. ICRA, created in 1999 as a non-profit organization, was formed when the Recreational Software Advisory Council (RSAC) folded into the new, international body. With a membership of over twenty top IT and telecommunications companies, including IBM, Microsoft and AOL, ICRA launched a revised rating questionnaire on their site www.icra.org in December 2000. This highly acclaimed rating syntax has been taken up by over 50,000 sites world-wide including the top three sites in the world, Yahoo!, MSN and AOL which account for 50% of US traffic.

ICRA will be launching a free, downloadable, software device called ICRAfilter in March 2002 which will read the new ICRA meta-tags and allow parents and other concerned adults to filter out sites they don’t want their kids to see. And, for the first time, allow the easy inclusion of block and allow lists from trusted third parties. It is hoped that the major browser makers and operating systems will also incorporate the ICRAfilter functions to make the system easy to find and easy to use. And there is considerable interest from other digital media in porting their labels onto the internet.

Labeling with ICRA is free and takes on average only five minutes to complete the online questionnaire. The webmaster then copies and pastes the PICS meta-tag in the header of their home page and this is read by the filtering device used by the parent – either in the two major browsers (who still support the old RSACi system) or within the soon-to-be released ICRAfilter. Categories include sexual content, violence, language, chat and other potentially harmful content. For the first time, context variables help to distinguish material that is deemed to be educational, medical or artistic and suitable for young children.

People in the Know

On November 27 I was privileged to be able to give a talk at the Silicon Valley World Internet Center. They are the nicest people and they do a great job of creating community and serious business discussion around key Internet topics.

Most of the attendees are Bay area folks who are “in the know”. Prior to the event the SVWIC posed a question — “What will the Internet change for you or your company in 2002?”

Given that the attendees are so knowledgeable and live/breath this stuff, it is enlightening to see the range and depth of their responses.

Tuesday, November 27, 2001

CHALLENGE-THE-EXPERT

NET ATTITUDE
By MR. John Patrick
Vice President, Internet Technology, IBM Corporation

“From IBM’s Internet Guru — A Revolutionary Approach to Instilling a Web-savvy Culture Throughout Your Organization”

RESPONSES FROM AUDIENCE PARTICIPANTS

On November 27, 2001, IBM’s Vice President of Internet Technology, Mr. John Patrick, made a return visit to the Center this year to discuss with Silicon Valley executives and technologists the profound implications of adopting an Internet attitude and how it would transform businesses.

Prior to his talk and the interactive knowledge discussion where the audience participants challenged Mr. Patrick’s premises, the participants were asked to answer the following question of which their responses are below:

“The Internet changes everything. What will the Internet change for you or your company in 2002?”

BUSINESS STRATEGY/MARKETING
Improved remote office capabilities.
New distribution channel, revenue stream.
Collapse of demand from first wave has caused disillusionment in future investments.
It is the end of big companies.
New market approach.
Fewer banner ads; fewer subscription-based services; more transactional tracking.
Expect the Internet to expand in terms of more and more companies having a Web presence, thus providing more sales opportunities.
Exposure to more people and information.
A Web presence is an important marketing and sales tool for my new company.
New market approach.
A “true” push to eCommerce and a new career.
Stronger market.
Internet infrastructure supporting mobile communication will enable our Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)- based calling applications to be deployed.
Greatly influence our investment decisions.
Big question! The Internet will be the integral part of how we do business as a company and how we communicate with our users.
As a service provider, the expanding Internet will provide us with a growing market.
It really builds a strong service industry as companies move from fat products to customized services
(Web services).
It will allow me to have my offices anywhere I want them.
All GUIs go then; intranets, xtranets become more important, hence, move money; Web services – not yet, but let’s all pay homage.
It will impact my entire consulting portfolio as a management consultant/business strategist.
What is the single largest hurdle to deploying mobile commerce solutions? And how do you envision it being overcome?

GLOBALIZATION AS A SUBSET OF BUSINESS STRATEGY/MARKETING
The Internet will allow my company to cost-effectively do business all around the world while at the same time overcoming previous inefficiency problems.
Enable a consultant like me to manage projects remotely in Asia and Europe from here.
It will allow me to expand my customer base beyond the U.S..
Business globalization.
Give local branches a global presence.
The Internet enables our firm to act globally and communicate with clients and strategic partners easily.
The Internet will change the ability of our company to market itself globally and bring together groups in a collaborative community.
Globalization of innovation and opportunities.
It will tie together every product and service across our global enterprise.
When will U.S. companies start realizing the Net gives them immediate access to the global market place and strategize accordingly?

COMMUNICATIONS
Communicating rapidly in business and personal lives.
Access to information.
Accessibility of information and greater coordination of activities and communication of uses of that information.
Continually improve ability to connect to information and people.
Knowledge will be distilled from information.
The way we share information and collaborate.

COMPETITIVENESS
Provide more selection, but overall, force more competitiveness.
The Internet will enable very fine-grained competition and innovation arising from core competencies rather than control of markets.
Change the economy back to somewhere near pre-March 2001 . . .$$$.
It will bring a new type of revenues.
It will bring greater profit. “Realsoft ISP”
Under deliver on experience; cause sufficient confusion to fuel consulting projects.

CUSTOMER SERVICE/CRM
It will most likely change my travel schedule. I will need to add several thousand more air miles to see all the new constituents.
The Internet will connect my business with customers.
The Internet will allow us to keep in continuous contact with our customers.
It will bring new types of services.
Faster feedback regarding customer interests and buying patterns.
Allows companies to analyze customers’ and markets’ needs and make recommendations to develop business.

EFFICIENCIES/COST-EFFECTIVENESS/PRODUCTIVITY
Well, we’ve just got to pay for it! $$$
It will make my primary market research more cost-effective – Web-based surveys via email; Web-based virtual focus groups.
The Internet will allow our company to become more efficient through mobile and wireless services.
Streamlines business processes.
The Internet will improve the speed to perform our tasks, distribution and collaboration.
Faster and easier.
More bandwidth; more multi-media, wireless related; social and community interactions; more efficient data mining.
It will let us implement tele-medicine very economically.
More, faster, deeper meaning and increasing content confusion.
Company direction and focus towards integrating technology.
Increase my business.
Operational efficiency.
Combination of mobility and Internet will fully deliver productivity.

LIFESTYLE/COMMUNITY
It will continue to break down the walls between work life and personal life as more instant chat becomes part of a day. Community of affiliation connected all day.
Allow me to learn more easily.
A more rational balance between commercial and non-commercial endeavors.
Web services will create new Internet economy in 2002, I hope!
Increase the time I spend in front of my computer reading news, doing investment, paying bills, shopping, communicating . For my company, not many changes are expected, because business needs to digest technology.
The Internet in 2002 will only change my personal life significantly if broadband finally arrives in a uniform fashion to American homes.
A big understatement.
Everything!
The crystal ball is cloudy; time will tell.
Yes.
Customer entertainment and information in cars.
I won’t really know until 2003!
Nothing.

LOGISTICS/SCM
The way we do business; the way we get paid; the type of business we will be; the way we pay suppliers.

SECURITY/PRIVACY
Need for more robust security to safeguard against viruses and terrorism.
Privacy: Addressing our customers’ data-handling concerns.
Interconnectedness and increased complexity driven by the Internet will only increase the need to address security and its management.

Programs at the Center, including Challenge-the-Experts, are possible due to the support of its Sponsors:

Amdocs
Cable & Wireless
Deutsche Telekom
Fujitsu
IBM
SAP
Sun Microsystems

For further information on Center program proceedings, please contact:

Ms. Susan Barich
Director of Communications
Silicon Valley World Internet Center
E: barich@worldinternetcenter.com