Northern Rock fiasco, Google, my local primary school, and the OLPC device

Guest Contribution by Dick Willis

Those of you who listen to Radio 4's 'Round Britain Quiz' will be familiar with their format - the team has to work out the connection between various apparently unrelated items. Well, here's one for you: the Northern Rock fiasco, Google,  my local primary school, and the OLPC device?

OK, don't waste your time, you've got your email to deal with; I'll tell you...

Northern Rock is in deep, mucky brown stuff because USA financiers lent money to folk who didn't have enough income to pay their mortgages; they then sold-on these debts to other financiers who bundled them up with other debts and sold them on again [and again, and again]. At each stage in this process the purchaser [presumably] calculated the risk of the 'basket' of loans going wrong. If the risk was acceptable and the price right, they would buy, if not, they wouldn't. Well, that's the theory anyway. Northern Rock was similarly calculating the baskets of risks in its portfolios. Of course, if the calculation of risks is wrong, or new factors emerge, the whole thing can slide into disarray, as we now know.

At each stage this means a hideously complex mathematical calculation to work out the risk involved in each basket. This is called a Monte Carlo calculation and requires  lots of computing power. The way this is now handled by the big banks is by using grid computing. At their simplest, grids harness the processor power of lots of computers to give a performance equivalent to the most powerful supercomputers, so you get the processing power without the expense. Of course,  data in still results in data out and perhaps we shouldn't ask too many questions about the escalating tiers of calculations that were carried out as the sub-prime market risks were assessed by successive purchasers...

Big finance companies are not the only ones using grids. Google, Amazon, e-Bay etc all use bespoke grid architectures to enable them to carry out their businesses. This is more than just providing huge computing power, it's also about connecting together different computing resources in different places to enable different tasks to be carried out efficiently. So for example, as each time zone comes on-line, the software running the grid can dynamically allocate the resources  to ensure that workloads are carried out seamlessly and with the most robust, resilient and cost-efficient mix of resources possible to suit the current workload. These grids also allow the companies to store and access the huge volumes of data on which their business models depend. (You can find out more about grids at Grid Computing Now!)

With all this computer power and data distribution possible, new models are beginning to emerge. With storage costing next to nothing, enough computer power available to run multiple applications simultaneously and more and more folk having broadband, why are we still all looking at buying copies of software that sit on our computers and need to be licensed all the time, even if we only use them occasionally? Why can't we just pay for using the software when we need it; why can't we treat computing as a utility, like electricity or gas?

Well, we can. The launch of Google Apps has brought utility computing to all our desktops. Now you can have access to  shared calendars, email, storage, web pages, spreadsheets, word processing and presentation software: a bit like Microsoft Office except you can access it wherever you are and whenever you want it and all you need is a browser. So, utility computing is here (or wherever you are) and it's here now. And a small business or a school can get this service for free.

So, that's dealt with the Northern Rock fiasco and Google. What about my local school and the OLPC device?

Well, my local primary school has an excellent ICT infrastructure. Unfortunately, that infrastructure has to be kept up to date and we're looking at a hefty bill over the next couple of years to replace ageing equipment and then replacing that kit a few years later. Currently, this includes buying a significant number of identical PCs to connect into our network, so that the pupils can use applications that come off the server as well as the standard MS Office applications that are installed on each machine. And around the UK there will be thousands of schools in the same position.  Fortunately for us, we're in an affluent middle-class area and have a highly supportive PTA that is good at raising money: lots of schools aren't so lucky.

And the OLPC device? Well, suppose we don't bother to replace the PCs. Suppose instead that we implement Google Apps for the school, invest in more bandwidth and purchase a whole load of "$100" OLPC devices (assuming these are available for large scale purchase in the developed world, which is not the case at present)? At this price we could give them to those kids who don't have internet access at home. These machines could provide wireless access and, outside of school, could establish - in principle at least - a wireless mesh so that they can all communicate with each other and the school system (thus solving the digital divide issue for kids without a PC and/or broadband at home). Our pupils could then use the devices to access resources stored on Google Apps (solving the problem of transferring work between home and school) and, through the browser, they could use all the Google Apps software (thus saving the costs associated with licensed, MS Office software). Of course, lots of the educational software we currently use has to be installed locally, but increasingly business applications are being delivered remotely via the browser, just like Google Apps, so this situation will change, just as it is changing in the business world.

Now there's a thought...

Dick Willis is Senior Consultant with CNR Ltd. In the mid to late 1990s, Dick was MD of South Bristol Learning Network, which developed the Cyberskills programme for ICL, and was the UK Partner in the ESPRIT programme, 'Web for Schools', which introduced collaborative project working to 700 European teachers. He co-manages the Grid Computing knowledge transfer network, has 5 kids, is a school Governor and has a parallel career as an explorer.

Comments

[Dick Willis]

Seems a bit odd to comment on my own article! However, I'm grateful to Scott Jones, Schools IT Officer for Bristol, for drawing my attention to the RM Asus machine which is a well reviewed linux machine for less than £200.

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For more on this device see http://eeepc.asus.com/uk/index.htm . Seb