2015: Faster Forward

But it could also and will be the dynamic refreshing of the data required by the internal analytics of the robotic device. An extreme but probably inevitable example might be the multiple patient conditions that are monitored so that Brain Surgeon Robot can make operating decisions. Unfortunately, it is even more probable that the theatres of war will see such advances first, in the next generation of battle tank or robot ‘infantry’ or submarine drones. But we civilians can also look to the promise of robots for jobs in hazardous environments, from mining to waste disposal to underwater engineering.

The place of the Cloud in all of this is in remote management and data exchange and analysis, especially in areas that involve centre to many at a serious scale. But there will undoubtedly be other applications where a direct one-to-one channel is more secure or just more appropriate.

While reluctant to give too much credit to that fuzzy Cloud thing, it is to a high degree as much a movement or a shift in computing philosophy as a specific technology set. In that context it has influenced and driven much else. Possibly the most powerful is Software Defined X, everything from storage to data centres to networks. This is actually where we should have been all along, although like all such revelatory hindsights, we were probably not in a position to implement it before our current level of interconnectivity. Since SDX is an acronym in many sectors, we could call it Software Defined Computing (SDC).
Although that is a bit odd, in the sense that all computing has always been about the software, without which the high tech engineering is just a mess of metal and silicon.

 

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The key point is that the SD philosophy, strategy or whatever we call it produces systems that are in essence infinitely variable, flexible, upgradable. Many users were delighted to discover that Microsoft Windows 7 reinvigorated otherwise tired PCs, enabling performance that was impossible with Windows XP. So has thin client architecture. That is a good and practical metaphor for SD computing. Smarter new generations of software can run on the same tin and cables and wireless protocols until our rate of progress demands investment in newer hardware technology.

The Software Defined Data Centre (SDDC) and the individual computer are alike in this respect: if the architecture is soft it is amenable to dynamic change. There are arguments against this line of progress. If all the intelligence is in the software layer and the devices are just dumb, are we just creating a bottleneck layer rather than one that expedites everything? It is also a potential market disincentive to hardware development, suggesting that all ICT equipment will be essentially commodity boxes.

But as always the truth is likely to lie somewhere in between. Within any concept of SDC it is entirely possible to envisage hardware that is programmable, controlled by and responsive to the governing software layer but with lots of local smarts. The analogy might be with graphics processors, specialist system subsets that complement the overall performance. Once everything is inherently programmable, there is more than adequate headroom for vendors to compete. Faster chips will always enhance performance, better capacity per cubic inch will always win the data storage battle and so on.

Perhaps strangely, the convergence of all of these ICT development strands is already evident in smarter appliances of all kinds. We are experiencing the inevitable early stage hype about 3D printing, which is terrific but with myriad limitations, notably in terms of the materials it can utilise. But we can combine those 3D printing capabilities with laser machining, and even with traditional machining, in combinations that will enable software controlled total production plants. We already have lights-out automated operations in many spheres. Add in today’s advanced robotics, advanced design tools such as digital prototyping, and the central control of whatever array of those smart production tools is required and we are well on our way to software defined manufacturing — digital factories.

Remember that old HP mantra “Distribute first, then print.”? Perhaps we will soon see the latest new consumer product — toy or game or gardening tool or exercise accessory — made on demand at the back of our local shopping centre. Spare parts for that slightly older gadget? No problem. Check the catalogue online, order and collect from your local digital factory service. It’s Murphy’s, not Sony or Black & Decker or Mattel, but it is the official licensed and guaranteed manufacturing agent.