Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

We revisit an old tradeoff that moves to a different dimension, but retains the tradeoff.

In the early 1990s, (yes, I am that old) we had about a dozen different computing systems in a laboratory. On any given day, one of the dozen would be “down” for repair. Too bad, but we functioned as the other 11 work “up” and working.

Then we bought a “super” computer (a super computer being one that is better than an ordinary computer). Persons in the dozen different places shared this super computer. Wonderfulness prevailed.

Then one day…(here it comes), the shared super computer was “down” for repair. Everyone sat twiddling their thumbs. The entire lab was down. No one functioned.

Aha! A tradeoff. Centralized service was great when it worked. Disbursed service meant that most people would be working on any given day. Hmmm.

Well, today, we have redundant or disbursed centralized services. We have beaten the tradeoff! Well, actually the tradeoff remains, but in a different dimension or a different attribute.

We consider national health records. At this time, health records are disbursed among the states, counties, cities, et al in America. Governments don’t share the information. Private companies, however, sell to all these government levels and can collect and share the information. The private companies can centralize the information while having redundant hardware to prevent “down” time.

And the data is SECURE! Right? It is secure, huh? It may be secure, but as folks who study the history of these valuable things will demonstrate, what is valuable and secure today will one day become…uh…shall we say…not secure. See, for example, the treasures buried with dead monarchs in the pyramids.

So we centralize in a new dimension—information. The tradeoff remains. Centralized services vs. disbursed services. Gosh these tradeoffs are a nuisance. If you are a manager of things, please remember this.