News for December 3

Infoworld: Open source developers set out software road map for 2020

by Peter Sayer

A group of open source software advocates set out a road map for the software industry through 2020 at the Open World Forum conference in Paris on Tuesday.

The authors of the report, "2020 FLOSS Roadmap" (PDF), made a number of predictions about the role of FLOSS (free, libre, and open source software) in 2020, and 80 recommendations for the industry. Their use of the French word "libre" ("free," as in "unfettered") clears up the ambiguity inherent in the English word "free," which can also mean without cost.

They painted a rosy vision of 2020 in which FLOSS will have entered the mainstream of the software industry and contributed to reducing the digital divide between rich and poor. Social networks will rely on ubiquitous, open cloud-computing services and will allow people to interact not just with friends, but also with governments and businesses, they said. CIOs wary of vendor lock-in will champion the use of FLOSS, and such software will be at the heart of green datacenters and other business models with low ecological impacts, they said.

Reaching this computing nirvana, however, will require action – and not just by bearded geeks. Investors, legislators, educators, electors, and even consumers also have a role to play, according to the report's authors.

TheRegister: What's wrong with tape backup?

by Team Register

Another week, another rummage through Reg Whitepapers. This time we delve into enterprise storage for your delectation. Let's kick-off with an ideological onslaught against tape backup for multi-branch operations.

This paper from Double Take Software examines the "high cost, complexity and potentially dangerous shortcomings of a recovery strategy based on traditional tape backup. That's fighting talk, in some parts.

So what's the alternative? According to Double Take, what you need is "continuous data replication to a remote recovery sites over existing WAN connections".So where does that get you?

"Exponentially better remote disaster protection" at no extra cost or complexity and access to new data acceleration technologies that speed up remote recovery performance over the WAN, says Double Take.

You can guess what this company does for a living. The paper contains an overt pitch for Double Take technology and a case study. But there is also a solid exposition of what's wrong with tape backup - And the case for continuous data replication is interesting enough.

eWeek: Server Virtualization: A Five-Year Roadmap

by Chris Preimesberger

The installed base of VMs will grow more than tenfold between 2007 and 2011, says Gartner. By 2012, the majority of x86 server workloads will be running in virtual machines. Unix and mainframes also will be using virtualization, but Intel-based open systems will run the bulk of the workloads, Gartner predicts.

LAS VEGAS—Because the virtualization of IT infrastructure now is so pervasive and integral to the daily operation of data centers, it would behoove IT managers to take a look at the next five years and get a projection of where trends in this technology might be heading.

So, Thomas Bittman, a Gartner data center research vice president, on Dec. 2 dared to look into the future and report—based on IT trends of the past—what he believes will happen.