Computer Systems Colloquium
"Designing Manageable Computer Systems:
A New Framework for Division of Informatics Computing"
3.30 pm, Thursday 10 February
Room 2511, James Clerk Maxwell Building
Abstract
General-purpose computing facilities, such as the majority of those in
the Division of Informatics, now tend to be composed of many individual,
personal machines with different characteristics, and different
requirements. Such machines will communicate frequently, but the
increasing power and mobility means that they often operate largely
independently of the fixed network. Unlike many installations, there
is also a demand for a diverse range of rapidly changing software and
facilities.
Attempting to manage such a system as a collection of individual
machines is not possible; techniques for installing, configuring and
updating single machines do not scale without a linear increase in
effort. Perhaps even more important, is the lack of predictability,
reliability, and security which results from an uncertainty about the
true configuration of any particular machine.
Tools and techniques for managing such systems effectively are not yet
well established, but the Division of Informatics has been active in
developing this area for several years. This talk will describe some of
the issues, and solutions that are likely to be considered as part of
a new framework for computing in the Division of Informatics.
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