Google – distributed applications
Thinking about distributed applications and you fairly quickly get to Google. Initially and predominantly a search company Google has expanded into the application space in recent years. Now the Google Search is an obvious distributed application in that a client (the browser) uses search to interrogate Google’s search index but a deeper dig and you find gems like the Google File System which according to Ghemawat, Gobioff and Leung (2003) manages “largest cluster to date provides hundreds of terabytes of storage across thousands of disks on over a thousand machines.”
Indeed, Google appear to be developing / acquiring the tools to create a complete distributed application suite for performing all the functions previously performed by desktop applications according to Boothby (2006) and others. Google itself does not view its content sharing tools as Microsoft Office competitors, as Dr Eric Schmidt, Google CEO has stated on numerous occasions:
We embarked on a strategy to build apps that are search centric and very sharable….as something use in normal life. We are not arguing it is an [Microsoft] Office replacement, but a different way of manage information. I dont think it replaces Office. – Dr Eric Schmidt 2006 quoted in Bogatin (2007)
Google has also taken full advantage of Web 2.0 technologies and according to Tim O’Reilly is the standard barer for Web 2.0. I liked the concept that Google was a middleman or enabler between the user and his or her online experience.
Refs:
Ghemawat, Sanjay., Gobioff, Howard., and Leung, Shun-Tak.; Aug 2003.; The Google File System.; http://216.239.37.132/papers/gfs-sosp2003.pdf
O’Reilly, Tim.; 30/Sept/2005.; What Is Web 2.0 – Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software.; http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html?page=1
Boothby, Rod.; 11/Jan/2006.; Google Replacement for Office.; Innovation Creators.;http://innovationcreators.com/wp/?p=87
Bogatin, Donna.; 17/April/2007.; Google 2.0 redux: Eric Schmidt meets John Battelle again.; ZDNet.;http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-markets/?p=1233
