Our speaker for May will be Jim Waldo, from Sun Microsystems; an
abstract of his talk appears below.
Jim is an excellent speaker, and I strongly encourage folks to come hear
what he has to say.
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======== BackBayLISA Calendar of Events ========
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Date: May 8, 2002
Time: 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Location: MIT
Building E51, Room 149
Corner of Amherst & Wadsworth Streets
Cambridge, MA
Schedule: 7:00 - 7:30 Introductions/Resume Sharing/Job Openings
7:30 - 9:00 Speaker's presentation and discussion
9:00 - Adjourn to local eating/drinking
establishment
Coordinator: Adam Moskowitz
Speaker: Jim Waldo
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Topic: "When the Network is the Computer"
Abstract:
For nearly 15 years, the motto "the network is the computer" has been
used by Sun Microsystems. However, practice, both within Sun and in
other computer companies, show that either this motto has not been
understood or that it has not been believed. In point of fact, the
computer is something that is enclosed in some sheet metal running some
operating system, and the network is conceptually a set of wires that
has connected these computers.
This kind of design has meant that most network design has happened at
the level of system administration, where networks of computers are
connected in ways that reflect the needs of a particular installation.
Keeping this network working and growing the network to reflect the
changing needs of an organization has taken up more and more of the
administrators time, energy, and thought.
Unfortunately, networks are growing and changing at a rate that will
insure that our current attitudes toward them will have to change. In
the same way that the phone network needed fundamental change to keep
everyone from having to become a telephone operator in the 1930s and
40s, we need to change the way we approach the construction of computer
networks if we are going to avoid the need of everyone becoming a system
administrator.
In this talk, we will discuss some of the trends that have brought us to
where we are, and look at an experiment in self-configuring and
self-healing networks. We will talk about the advances in computing that
have allowed this experiment, and talk about some of the changes that
could be brought about because of the results that have been obtained.
Finally, we will engage in some wild speculations on the future
directions of networking, ubiquitous computing, and the role that system
administrators will play in this future world.
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