First, an apology to the readers. Usually I try to add some entertaining, humorous commentary that make you want to read more, brightens up your day and sometimes makes the oftentimes dry world of IT news a little easier to swallow.
But today we’ve got some comments on IT management from Network World, an instructional video on Amazon’s outsourced virtual servers from ZDNet, some talk about Verizon’s EVDO network from wired, and some developments in AI from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
In fact, if you have something I can work with, let me know about it in our comments section or by e-mailing brian.boyko@netqos.com.
Anyway, on with Thursday’s links…
ZDNet: Time to throw away your servers? (Video)
ZDNet’s executive editor, David Berlind, talks about Amazon’s Elastic Computer Cloud, which is a pay-as-you-go data center outsourcing service that uses virtual servers. The advantage of those virtual servers is partially that you can turn off the servers you aren’t using during less than peak hours, and that the price for using one of these virtual servers is less than the price of outsourcing a physical server.
Network World: IT Management Done Right:
Based on interviews conducted by Network World editor Bob Brown at Babson College, this article helps explain how to run an IT department while integrating newer technologies such as VoIP, Virtualization and WiFi into the existing architecture.
The QoS that I find relevant is not at the bits and bytes level, it is all about the “perceived performance” from the users’ perspective. This is not to say we take all user comments of “the network/application is slow” at face value, but we do try to find patterns in these comments and investigate the causes that lead to the comments. If there is one standard measurement in computing, it is that happy users don’t complain. Therefore, we take all complaints seriously. Setting arbitrary performance levels at the network layer is not useful to me, the entire experience of the user has to be taken into account. This usually means we look at the application on down when researching performance/quality of service issues.
In short, the line between the network vs. servers vs. application is so fuzzy you have to take a macro view toward QoS, no matter what your job role is. I expect everyone within my organization to look at the user experience first and then their statistics to support/refute the claim.
Wired: Verizon says Unlimited equals 5GB: Bans P2P
Wired Magazine’s GadgetLab blog talks about some of the fine print in the EVDO network from Verizon, which prohibits use of P2P and streaming media, and limits transfers to 5GB. The main thrust of the article is that they’re marketing this limited functionality as “unlimited” – but I’m more interested in the idea that Verizon is likely doing everything to cut down on traffic on the EVDO network.
“A person engaged in prohibited uses, continuously for one hour, could typically use 100 to 200 MBs, or, if engaged in prohibited uses for 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, could use more than 5 GBs in a month [...] Anyone using more than 5 GB per line in a given month is presumed to be using the service in a manner prohibited above, and we reserve the right to immediately terminate the service of any such person without notice.”
Sounds like poor capacity planning leading to poor customer relations to me.
Uinversity of Illinois at Chicago: Virtual Reality for Virtual Eternity.
Virtual Necromancy.
Imagine having a discussion with Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein on the nature of the universe, where their 3-D, life-sized representations looked you in the eye, examined your body language, considered voice nuances and phraseology of your questions, then answered you in a way that is so real you would swear the images were alive.
It’s interesting stuff. I’m curious to see if this could practically be sent over the network, however, and what the bandwidth requirements would be.
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