A Google-eyed Glimpse of the Future?

Google Operating System… has an interesting article… about Google’s possible long-term aims. The gist of it is that they are aiming to make applications (and by extension, computer operating systems) server-based. Right now, the majority of software running on your computer primarily leverage local resources, i.e. they run from and store data on attached disk drives. The ultimate aim, in so much as it’s possible to see right now, is to relocate much of this to one or more dedicated servers. The article then goes on to explain that Google already offers an implementation of this plan for its employees, via a system called “Platypus”.

The implicated advantages of the system are interesting: you need not worry about data backups (I should say “worry less”), but more importantly everything can potentially be accessible by everyone, everywhere.

Now, it will be a while before non-Google-employees get a taste of this technology, and probably much, much longer before it will start to have potential application within the film industry, but perhaps it serves a goal to strive to: imagine not having to worry about the physical location of reels of film or video tapes (assuming they are all scanned and digitized respectively), or indeed, any of the associated metadata, like edit versions, directors’ notes and the like. The production-studio-on-a-laptop paradigm just got a little closer.

Posted: January 29th, 2007
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