by Eric J. Bruno
In considering the history of distributed computing, CIOs should focus on how companies knew that it was the right time to make a big architectural bet on the next wave of technology. This past experience could help CIOs who are being asked to consider a similar move today. In the 1970s, for instance, Reuters introduced Monitor, through which journalists entered information via dumb terminals and a mainframe computer sent it out to readers.
In the early 1990s distributed computing concept was improved further by building a pioneering electronic trading system, Globex, for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, drawing on a mainframe and Windows-based PCs. As Globex’s costs grew with its popularity, CME moved the Globex architecture to an even more distributed model: a pair of mainframe-class computers coupled with about 1,500 workstation-class servers running Linux and Solaris.
The biggest recent change to the distributed computing model is virtualization, letting IT divide a physical server into multiple virtual servers. Beyond the oft-cited hardware, energy, and space savings, using virtualization to divide a physical server into virtual ones helps solve the problem of getting the most value from multicore computers.
