{"id":1000,"date":"2007-12-13T22:07:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-14T05:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/wp\/?p=1000"},"modified":"2007-12-13T22:07:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-14T05:07:00","slug":"the_technoutili","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/?p=1000","title":{"rendered":"The techno-utility complex"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phil Wainewright. contemplating the potential concentration of the computing grid into “a handful of huge data centers,” warns<\/a> against the rise of a “techno-utility complex” in which “vested economic and political interests conspire together to build huge technology-based utility industries that preserve and reinforce their power bases.” He elaborates:<\/p>\n

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concentration of compute power in the network is in the interests of those who operate the large data centers. Sun, Google, Microsoft and Amazon will lobby hard for it, but who will argue the counter case, against the techno-utility complex? I\u2019m not saying there\u2019s no case for megacenters \u2014 they\u2019ll benefit consumers where they provide true economies of scale, especially if they\u2019re sited next to plentiful supplies of hydro or other carbon-neutral energy sources \u2014 but my gut feel is that the ideal solution is a hybrid infrastructure, combining megacenters, transportable midi-centers and client-side resources, each performing tasks they\u2019re best suited for and most efficient at.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t think we’re going to see anything like a total centralization of compute power in a small number of data centers. Distributed microprocessors and data stores aren’t going away, and in fact are essential to the effective operation of web apps and other centrally supplied services. On the other hand, I do think we’ll see a steadily increasing concentration of computing assets, compute power, and data storage – not just because it’s in the best economic interest of the utility suppliers but because it’s in the best economic interest of the users as well. Not only does centralization provide economies of scale, in the machinery, the labor force, the real estate, and the electricity and other resources used for computing services, but it provides for a more flexible means of sharing information among both individuals and companies.<\/p>\n

But Wainewright is right to point to the risks inherent in the centralization of control over the computing grid. He concludes, “The danger is that allowing the techno-utility complex to get its way will prove contrary to the true interests of society.” The scope of that danger remains uncertain, but I’m convinced that in the coming years the public and its politicians will face some difficult choices as both the risks and the benefits of the centralization of computing power become more apparent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phil Wainewright. contemplating the potential concentration of the computing grid into “a handful of huge data centers,” warns against the rise of a “techno-utility complex” in which “vested economic and political interests conspire together to build huge technology-based utility industries that preserve and reinforce their power bases.” He elaborates: concentration of compute power in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}