Towards planetary scale computing: next generation

The confluence of web based distributed applications, Linux based servers, and internet data centers has enabled applications unimaginable a decade ago. However, these new environments are problematic: dedicating hardware to specific applications limits flexibility, varying application demands result in poor server utilization, rising complexity escalates operational costs, and increasing server density generates energy and cooling issues. Consequently, a new conceptual model for large-scale computing is required that addresses flexibility, utilization and cost. We formulate key research questions for planetary scale computing. We develop a computing model where the data center itself is considered a virtual computer and is controlled by a data center operating system. We create a consumer-supplier relationship that simplifies the brokering of resource supply to application demand. We illustrate recent research results in architecture, dynamic resource management, automation, and energy management. We describe two 1000 node "utility data center" research platforms that will be accessible by university collaborators.
Rich Friedrich is the director of the Internet Systems and Storage Lab in HP Labs. The ISSL research team focuses on next-generation Internet computing and storage systems, and on inventing distinctive utility computing mechanisms to provide IT infrastructure on demand.

His sustained record of innovative accomplishments spans his 20-year career in HP research and product positions. He led the system performance team that optimized the first commercial PA-RISC based systems in the mid-1980s and the first multiprocessor, online transaction processing RISC systems in the late 1980s. He led the architecture and design of a large-scale, distributed measurement system for the OSF Distributed Computing Environment in the early 1990s.

More recently, he led the teams that invented WebQoS, the novel technology for providing predictable and stable performance for Internet based applications, re-architected Linux for IA-64, and provided key technologies to HP's Utility Data Center.

He has participated on many scientific program committees, published extensively, and is a co-inventor on a dozen patents. He is a graduate of Northwestern University .