Theory Matters - Visioning/Commodity

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Computing as a Commodity: Distributed Computing over the Global Internet

Imagine an Internet that automatically and securely carries out complex computational tasks for geographically dispersed users, serves their rich personalized data requests, and provides seamless group communication. How do we model this new paradigm to enable algorithms that are secure, efficient, robust, and energy aware?

Summary

Today's Internet serves not only as a communication network but also as a computing tool. Increasingly clients are separated from their data and processing resources, while we use Internet-based applications for remote services like ordering merchandise and filing tax returns. It is natural to envision computing power as a future commodity. Research in theory of computing can lead these new trends (a) by mathematically modelling the heterogeneity of connected computers and the diversity of computing tasks, as well as their security and economics, (b) by creating new metrics that capture energy limitations and communication bottlenecks, and (c) by developing solutions for seamlessly and transparently distributing dynamic workload across the network. Such research will enable collaborations between theoreticians and more applied computer scientists.

Rationale

The modern computing environment has changed significantly over the past decades. Starting from a collection of computers loosely connected over a local file system, our data is now distributed all over the world. Moreover, we increasingly use Internet-distributed applications to process this data. It is natural to believe that soon much of our computation will be performed inside the network, and that computing power will be a commodity, like water and electricity. We will be able to purchase over the network not only faster machines and better connections, but also raw computing power.

Tomorrow's network will be more heterogeneous, consisting not only of server farms, but also personal computing devices like PCs, PDAs, and even small low-power sensors. This ubiquity and heterogeneity of computational devices gives rise to many algorithmic challenges: How do we store the data so that it is readily accessible when we need it? How do we ensure the security and privacy of the data? How should the diverse tasks originated network-wide be scheduled in the network subject to the various computing and communication constraints? How do we price the services to encourage collaborative behavior among the users and the service providers? How do we ensure reliability and provide protection across multiple layers and heterogeneous computing environments?

Tomorrow's network will also need to be energy aware, expanding the computing power under severe energy constraints. How do we exploit the trade-off among speed, energy and performance? What is a good metric, beyond addition to space and running time, that captures the energy issue? How do we measure communication that increasingly dominates other costs within processors and among computers and memories?

New models that allow an explicit role for aforementioned new issues will reinvigorate numerous applied fields of computing, placing them on a firm and mutually collaborative foundation. It will advance our understanding and future development of data-driven computation, computing-as-commodity, and farming of data over the global Internet.

Contributors and Credits

Anupam Gupta, Rajmohan Rajaraman, Udi Wieder, David Wise, Lisa Zhang

Image Ideas

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Images of users, data and processing resources (computers) in separate locations; images of diverse computing devices, e.g. laptop, cellphone, PDA, sensor nodes in sensor networks.

Comments

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The tagline and first couple of sentences of the summary seem to have a bit of a technical tone, with the use of "service", "virtualization", "data storage", "compute engines", "algorithms", "communication/computing network", "data/processing resources", "remote services". None of these is too bad on its own (and it's good to have "algorithms" to maintain the TCS focus) but all together it may be a bit much for a non-CS reader. Can they be put into more accessible language? - Salil
I'd drop the word "abstract" in the tagline and summary; abstraction seems like a negative unless we convey the benefits here. Similarly, the list of contributions (a)-(c) is nice, but it'd be nice to convey more clearly what ultimate benefits may come out of the "mathematical models" and "new metrics". - Salil
Minor suggestions: "defining mathematical models that capture" -> "mathematically modelling", "collabrations within and among the more applied fields..." -> "collaborations between theoretical computer scientists and the more applied fields...", "A new model that allows" -> "New models that allow" - Salil
Points of writing style: "computing network -> "computing tool"; "and increasingly" -> "while we"; "within the network" -> "across the network"; "that soon, much" -> "that soon much"; "to be "green"," -> "to be "green,"" - Bernard
Green computing is really about saving on electricity bills not saving the environment, and the link with better algorithms is tenuous at best. It's a weak hook that needs to be strengthened or dropped. - Bernard
Nugget modified. -- Lisa
I made some minor edits. Also removed the last para which seemed too generic and not tied to the nugget. Here is the para, just in case somebody wants to put any of it back. "General insights that cross artificial boundaries have been a common impact of fundamental, mathematical modeling. Such research will build from the models to the algorithms and architectures, and onward to the programming paradigms and languages that engineers can comfortably use to develop futuristic software." -- Rajmohan
Nugget is definitely much more accessible now! Minor comment: "theoretical computer scientists and the more applied fields" -> "theoreticians and more applied computer scientists". - Salil
Minor stylistic comment: remove second "new" in summary - Salil
Note from designer Elaine Park: I think this brings to life what the author was looking for. I added the dollar signs to make the idea of commodity clear � let me know if it distracts from the content of the paper.
I don't feel strongly, but one thing that does not come across in the image is the idea of the computing devices being in different, diverse locations. - Salil
I agree with Salil. The geographical diversity is a crucial aspect and that should come be made more evident. It would also be good to add some other pictures that indicate the diversity of services that one would use remotely -- storage, financial services, e-science (large-scale scientific computing), multimedia, Internet TV, etc. - Rajmohan
I agree with Rajmohan. Also the dollar signs on the screens seem not necessary. - Richard
I agree with what Salil and Rajmohan said about diversity. In addition, it would be good to convey some "ad-hoc-ness" of the computing/networking/communication environment. At the moment, the image looks almost too nice and regular. - Lisa
Revised images uploaded. - Salil
Note from designer Elaine Park: This collage-style slide shows a range of people in a various of locales using their computers for a range of needs. I attached a few design versions (one option uses screenshots of websites that more explicitly illustrate some of the services described in the nugget).
I think the new version illustrates the diversity of services and that's great, but I feel the physical separation of user and data/computing resources is missing. For example, we could keep the top four images as examples of services, and other images can be replaced by pictures of data centers, high-speed processors, networks/cell-phone towers, etc. Sorry for being so picky. -- Lisa
Revised ppt uploaded. - Salil
Note from designer Elaine Park: Added a network, data towers, cellphone tower, and processor to the image.