Slashdot Mirror
Convergence of P2P and Grid Predicted
tom_conte writes "From the proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Peer-to-Peer Systems (IPTPS'03), "On Death, Taxes, and the Convergence of Peer-to-Peer and Grid Computing" compares the two current popular incarnations of distributed computing technology, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and Grid Computing. It also predicts the convergence of the two technologies: "The complementary nature of the strengths and weaknesses of the two approaches suggests that the interests of the two communities are likely to grow closer over time." This paper is worth reading if you want to clear up the marketing cloud that surrounds these two technologies and sometimes makes them hard to distinguish."
In the aftermath of the dot com crash, companies are falling over themselves trying to snag onto the "next big thing".
Now we have two different worlds colliding, with people pushing 'em that have been ignoring each other all this time.
They've at least recognized this, however, there's still a HUGE problem.
They can't make it easy for the average person to install and use.
They (the Grid folks in particular) seem to be missing this, big time. Globus is NOT easy to install...it's not an out of box experience like any of the P2P things are. It's a multi-day install, and you have to know what the heck you're doing.
Secondly, the world doesn't need yet another Corba-like thing to make everything interoperate with everything else with MORE glue on top of it. KQML should have taught people this lesson back when that was all the rage in agent systems. If you want two systems to talk to each other, couple 'em in whatever language you want and stick to it.
There's so much extra overhead in doing tasks that "the grid" is supposed to take care of....man, I wish these people would just sit back and take notice of the other distributed systems out there that are out there and working and solving problems without foisting yet another distributed computing paradigm (oh hell, I can't believe I used that word...forgive me), on the world.
Lord knows we don't need it entangling reasonably well put together P2P systems with the tentacles of the heavy-weight "Grid".
In the future:
Computers will control our houses and your high definition television will be your main terminal
Someone will make a mobile phone that doesn't suck as a PDA (or a PDA that doesn't suck as mobile phone)
We'll all evolve more agile thumbs from "texting"
There will be One True programming language (not a troll)
Everyone will type on a Dvorak keyboard when not using a flawless voice interface that does what you mean and not what you say
We will bathe everyone in the electromagnetic glory of Wireless
As computers get faster and faster, and software gets more and more efficient, every user interaction will receive nearly instantaneous responses
VR is the next big thing
Build from a solid foundation and some of things will happen. Build from fragile abstractions and a sneeze will knock out the grid. The promise of technology is not the promise of earnings or market creation. How well does it help us live our lives.
Flush toilet, books == good
Pager, way-too-fast-food == bad
...Crawls back in cave...
The paper's title refers to the Web having been implemented by those outside the systems research community, who had elegant solutions to interesting problems but didn't pay enough attention to needs of users. The authors are afraid this might happen again if P2P researchers ignore the needs of Grid users. The third generation P2P infrastructures represented by systems such as Tapestry, Pastry, and Chord are amazing. For example, with one of these, you could implement a truly distributed DNS system that doesn't use hierarchy or centralization, and thus would be much more immune to DoS attacks than the current system. P2P researchers should heed the Call to Action at the end of this paper.