I like the infra part. Many of us are 'researchers' who just dont have big enough pocket. If only there's some kind of 'public campus' for us to use without having breaking arms and legs. For instance I'm particularly interested to test and expand some ideas on immunological cloud infra (since Boh uses health as example). On Jul 31, 2012 6:12 PM, "Boh Yap" <bhy...@gmail.com> wrote:
> hi all, > > Firstly, I apologise for coming into this late, have not been > following OSDC list much lately, work... then Red1 pulled me into > this. > > So gathering some facts from above, here is my rant. > > 1. Centralized IT > > Need to rethink, centralization offers benefits like economies of > scale, standardisation, leveraging/creating pools of expertise > (building ecosystems)... > > But this has got to be different from the mainframe era, with big > vendors, technology lock-in, proprietry standards and hardware... > > What the 'New Centralization' should be; it should leverage the > latest technology, cloud based computing, ubiqious mobile devices, > prevalent broadband internet. > > Why? > ---- > Centralising computing much as you would cemtralise utillities, like > water, power etc... Such utillities are considered infrastructure, > essential for economic development. Much as our current current > economic strength was due to the foresight of earlier government to > spend on developing the physical infrastructue of roads, ports, power, > water... which in turn attracted DFI (direct foreign investment) which > inturn led to our economic prosperity. That was phase 1, which was > essentially emphasizing on 'hardware' or physical infra. > > Phase 2: is about building 'Knowledge based' economy. The enablers for > that is ICT infra, that would allow knowledge and services to 'flow' > just as roads and ports allowed physical goods to flow. Hence > computing resources - as represented by cloud-computing, broadband > (wireless) telecommunications, mobile devices are the way to go. > > These, are still 'hard' infra, easy to build, just spend money and do > a bit of planning. The development of the 'soft-assets' is more > difficult, it includes fixing Education, and devloping ecosystems of > IT expertise, SW development, mobile solutions, cloud-computer admins, > network & security... Then you need domain experts.. > > > Easily available infra - leads to innovation > -------------------------------------------- > > A prominent Silicon Valley VC, in a talk, mentioned the low-cost of > computing leads to the rapid growth of innovation and new start-up > companies. He specifically mentioned the low-cost of PC/laptops and > zero-cost of FOSS. But to deploy and beta-test a product, hosting > costs are still high, particularly in Malaysia. Lowering hosting costs > via cloud based infra, would lower costs further, leverage > efficiencies for wider systems deployment and allow many more > innovators to participate. > > Start-ups/innovators can quickly & cheaply develop, test, deploy their > prodctt. Cheaper startup costs allow more people to participate. There > will be a faster cycle, from conception to success/failure. This leads > to a more efficient Darwinian evolution, weeding out the weak, > quickly. (note: failure itself is not a bad thing, it teaches valuable > lessons that lead to success) > > Thus you build a healthy eco-system. > > > How this will help government? > ------------------------------ > I'll use a 'scenario' to illustrate: > > Min. of Health (it could be any other..) has a 'cloud' infra, based on > OSS (e.g. OpenStack) and wants to explore some new solutions, > computerization of the rapidly expanding 1Malaysa clinics... > > They put out a RFP with the following terms: > > - must use FOSS > > - code that's implemented/deployed must be open-sourced > (not free, and IP rights belong to respective developers) > > - based on open API and standards, > (for security and auhorization, for data storage > for data interchange, medical standars...) > > - MOH to define the standards to use, requiremnts specs, > performance specs, etc... They should not define tools, ie: > what DB, what language... > > - teams that accept the RFP, to put up a beta/prototype on a server > > - infra will be provided, development servers/tools, > test servers - all based on MOH-cloud > > (a small fee may be paid to development teams, or it can be made > into a competition. 200-300k for such a fee for a few million $ > project is not unreasonble. A junket trip arranged by vendors to > 'tour' overseas facilities would easily cost 100k plus! Which > the vendor already built into the final purchase price! ) > > > What are the benefits: > ---------------------- > - create/breed a rich ecosystem of developers/innovators based on > merits and capability > > - open competition, many teams compete > > - MOH gets to test and evaluate various products > and picks the ones that are most suitable and works. > > - MOH can even 'mix-match' modules from the different competing > teams. Because everything is based on open standards, tools. > ie: Not difficult to port PHP/mySQL app to Python/Postgres > and vv. Or buld a higher level layer that consolidates data > into a big centralised database, for centralise reference > OLTP and reporting, letting the invidual apps' DB handle > transactional needs. > > (A cost model will have to be determined for the above > methodology, not unsolvable among the OSS community.) > > - deployment will be really easy, as it was developed on the > same infra, > > - Procurement is simplified, no need for purchase of complex > configs, SW license/sizing. Just buy more storage, CPUs for > the cloud, standard items. > > - Scale-up is a non-issue. > > - Costs will be low, weed out 'lemons', things that don't > work before implementation (and fix them), not after. > > > Is the above scenario too idealistic? Not really, its is doable, but > it needs a serious change of mindset! > > There are still many 'holes' that need to be filled before the above > scenario is workable, > > Care to discuss?, > > > > > -- > #------- > regds, > > Boh Heong, Yap > > -- > To unsubscribe from and detail about this group > http://portal.mosc.my/osdc-my-mailing-list-information > > OSDC.my Discussion Group In Facebook > http://www.facebook.com/groups/osdcmalaysia/ > > Malaysia Open Source Conference 2012 > MOSC2012 http://portal.mosc.my/ > -- To unsubscribe from and detail about this group http://portal.mosc.my/osdc-my-mailing-list-information OSDC.my Discussion Group In Facebook http://www.facebook.com/groups/osdcmalaysia/ Malaysia Open Source Conference 2012 MOSC2012 http://portal.mosc.my/
