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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Special Features:
AKAMAI COMPETING WITH
GOOGLE?
Google may be utilizing the largest grid of computers in the world, but
remains reserved in publicizing its operations in order to deter
competition.
By hiding its query information, Google can keep competitors from finding
out
the true processing power and cost of holding a place as the top search engine
provider. Google has been found to report lower query hit numbers than are
true.
Google hopes to keep competitors ignorant of the number of indexed pages
and
the number of computers running in its data centers. That way, Yahoo!, Teoma,
and Mooter won't know how much money is necessary to properly compete with
Google.
The truth is starting to creep out, however. The New York Times last year
reported that Google was using over 100,00 servers to operate, the largest
grid of computers in the world. Such an operation surprises even industry
experts.
The secret to Google's success can be found in its origins at Stanford. The
creators, rather than using several new and speedy computers, were forced to
use old, discarded computers from Stanford's CS department. Sergey Brin and
Larry Page thus formed the seeds of Google with distributed algorithms on a
small network of unstable and outdated computers.
And to this day, Google purchases cheap computers and utilizes the power
between multiple racks of them. Some are expected to fail, but Google still
saves more money than if it buy new and more expensive computers. Due to this
large connection of computers, Google has virtually unlimited computing
power.
Now, Akamai, a small company that went public in November 1999 with the
fourth
most successful IPO ever, is also utilizing a large network of computers to
possibly compete with Google.
After an amazing initial opening and impressive stock soar, Akamai was hit
by
the dot-com fallout. In addition, co-founder and CTO Danny Lewin was killed
on September 11, 2001 when his plane was flown into New York City's World
Trade Center building.
Akamai now operates in a similar manner as Google, using servers located
all
over the world. CNN, Microsoft and many others use Akamai to deliver their Web
pages every day.
Because the software used by these companies to manage and debug their
machines cannot be bought off the shelf, it is necessary to develop the
programming in-house; in this arena Akamai may have the advantage.
The operations used by Google and Akamai are unique in that they are spread
out globally. In addition, they differ from scientific clusters because they
must perform for customers with 100 percent uptime and have all the computers
involved work together.
Though Akamai does operate a similar infrastructure as Google, the two
organizations run separate and different applications on top. Google is search
engine based, while Akamai delivers Web pages and other Internet tools.
Akamai, in addition, is still attempting to create a clear business model
to
expand their business endeavors. In a much more open manner than Google,
Akamai is looking for new business opportunities and options to sell their
services.
Current developments include ways to let customers run applications on
Akamai's distributed servers. This is ideal for situations where demand is
unpredictable because the system can handle unexpected surges in use.
In addition, Java programming can run on the company's servers in virtually
any manner. Music services, as well as online shopping and catalogs are just
some of the examples of Akamai's current provisions.
The company's hit and request numbers are subsequently beginning to rise
rapidly.
Currently, email may be on the companies' advancement lists. Earlier this
month, Google announced that email would be its new priority. Offering users
one gigabyte of mail storage, (other free Web mail providers offer a hundredth
of that typically) Google promises unprecedented storage capabilities. Many
people thought that the announcement was an April Fool's joke, but Google is
very serious. Because users will hardly ever use such massive amounts of
storage for email, Google can buy new hard drives before consumers fill
them.
Google has also been working on the Google File System (GFS) and this
allows
high- speed replication and data access through its clusters. Users' emails
could be replicated between multiple Google clusters and the GFS could
redirect them to the closest cluster containing their personal messages when
they log in.
Akamai, though capable of such technology, would rather not directly deal
with
end users. The company would rather provide infrastructure services to a
company that would then support the user.
So competition with Google is not so much an issue, but teaming with them
to
provide the necessary technology is a possibility.
The possibility, however, is unlikely. Google's strict privacy policies
contrast with Akamai's open attitudes concerning their technology. Also,
Microsoft provides Akamai with 20 percent of its revenue and Google is in
constant Internet search competition with the software giant. A Google
relationship with a Microsoft partner would be a tense one.
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