Wednesday, August 08, 2007

"Web 3.0" and Infrastructure

In "What is Web 3.0?" Nicholas Carr breaks down various early definitions of Web 3.0 for the reader. In the end, he offers the following:
Web 3.0 involves the disintegration of digital data and software into modular components that, through the use of simple tools, can be reintegrated into new applications or functions on the fly by either machines or people.
Great definition, but again leaves out the importance of infrastructure on the equation. (Wait, wasn't Carr the one who pointed out that it all starts with infrastructure? What happened, Nicholas?) I would modify his statement to read
Web 3.0 involves the disintegration of digital data, software and infrastructure into modular components that, through the use of simple tools, can be reintegrated into new applications or functions on the fly by either machines or people.
To get a sense of how this technology would affect infrastructure, picture a world in which every aspect of the infrastructure stack, from application server to operating system to bare metal server to network fabric to shared storage, etc., can be assembled as necessary to meet the service level needs of an application (or even an application function). Need a J2EE service to run at 4 9's up time? Choose from a smorgasbord of app server vendors running on a selection of Hardware as a Service vendors with access to any number of supporting services from a variety of Software as a Service vendors--or let a service level automation tool (whether an appliance, a software product or a SaaS offering) do it for you. Ideally, let the SLAuto determine the most cost-effective way to deliver your service at the SL's you require.

To be fair, this is a ways down the road, but then so is anything Web 3.0.

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