01_790109 ffirs.qxp 6/13/06 8:48 PM Page iii Lessons in Grid Computing: The System Is a Mirror Stuart Robbins 01_790109 ffirs.qxp 6/13/06 8:48 PM Page i Lessons in Grid Computing 01_790109 ffirs.qxp 6/13/06 8:48 PM Page ii Additional praise for Lessons in Grid Computing: The System Is a Mirror “I really like the storytelling format for communicating these ideas, and I have a strong feeling this book will be uniquely positioned in the vol- umes of IT advice/offerings. The “Stuart Robbins philosophy” of IT project management is rooted in a genuine appreciation of the human side of technology. This book articulates these important and surpris- ingly simple (yet all too often overlooked) lessons. The accessible story- telling format will communicate to a wider audience than just IT management.” Maggie Law, User Interface Designer, PeopleSoft “I was thrilled to read this. It’s such an easy thing but most often it is overlooked. It’s very true that system reflects the harmony (or the lack of) of an organization. This book explains in plain English one of the se- crets of measuring the success or failures in this complicated and ever changing world of IT.” Ruyben Seth, Database Manager, Symantec Corporation (Oregon) “This is a very complicated and challenging concept and you have raised some serious thought provoking issues.” Atefeh Riazi, Worldwide CIO, Ogilvy & Mather, Inc. “These stories are easy to read, and good fodder for students!” Carol Brown, Ph.D., Kellogg School of Business “You are an excellent writer and [this theory] demonstrates that you are a visionary in our industry!” Steve Yatko, Head of IT R&D, Credit Suisse First Boston (NYC) 01_790109 ffirs.qxp 6/13/06 8:48 PM Page iii Lessons in Grid Computing: The System Is a Mirror Stuart Robbins 01_790109 ffirs.qxp 6/13/06 8:48 PM Page iv This book is printed on acid-free paper. ∞ Copyright © 2006 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Published simultaneously in Canada. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax 201-748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. 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For general information on our other products and services, or technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at 800-762-2974, outside the United States at 317-572-3993 or fax 317-572-4002. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. For more information about Wiley products, visit our Web site at www.wiley.com. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Robbins, Stuart, 1953- Lessons in grid computing : the system is a mirror / Stuart Robbins. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-471-79010-5 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-471-79010-9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Information technology—Management. 2. Business—Computer networks. 3. Management information systems. 4. Industrial management—Technological innovations. 5. Decision making. I. Title. HD30.2.R627 2006 658.4’038—dc22 2006002910 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 01_790109 ffirs.qxp 6/13/06 8:48 PM Page v For my son, Max 01_790109 ffirs.qxp 6/13/06 8:48 PM Page vi “We must transform ourselves.” –Steve Yatko Head of IT R&D, Credit Suisse First Boston 2004 “Language is digital.” –Gregory Bateson Steps Toward an Ecology of Mind 1972 02_790109 ftoc.qxp 6/13/06 8:48 PM Page vii CONTENTS Foreword by Geoffrey Moore xi Foreword by Thornton May xiii Acknowledgments xvii CHAPTER 1 The Prime Theorem 1 Information Systems Mirror the People that Build Them CHAPTER 2 Interfaces 7 How They Work and What Happens When They Are Broken CHAPTER 3 Relationship Management 21 We Can No Longer Manage the Systems as Single Nodes CHAPTER 4 Virtualization 36 A Natural Stage in the Maturity Cycle of Technologies CHAPTER 5 Orchestration 59 Finding a Sensible Order amid too Many Complications to Count CHAPTER 6 Complexity 80 Databases, Passwords, Collaboration, Funding, Smashed Atoms, and a Professor vii 02_790109 ftoc.qxp 6/13/06 8:48 PM Page viii viii Contents CHAPTER 7 Distributed Resources 99 Two Types of Diffusion—Compute Resources and Human Capital CHAPTER 8 Flash Teams 122 Analysis of New Organizational Groups from Several Perspectives CHAPTER 9 Network as Narrative Form 138 Basic Building Blocks Connected to Create Various Structures CHAPTER 10 Identity 155 Finding the Needle in the Haystack and Giving It a Name CHAPTER 11 Organizational Architecture 170 How We Organize Ourselves Is as Important as What We Say and Do CHAPTER 12 (Theory of) Resonant Usability 181 Everything Is Moving to the Presentation Layer, Where Humans Interact CHAPTER 13 Turbulence 208 Creating Stability in the Face of Chaotic Disruption CHAPTER 14 Libraries 232 Two Lives, Two Windows, and the Search for Information CHAPTER 15 Abstraction 246 Lift Yourself above the Conflicting Details and Look for Similarity CHAPTER 16 Insubordination as an Asset 260 Why You Must Allow Employees to Disagree with Your Decisions CHAPTER 17 The Consortium 281 The Multisourced IT Organization and a Software Commons—Our Future CHAPTER 18 The Everysphere 303 An Example of Synchronous Events between “Unrelated” Objects 02_790109 ftoc.qxp 6/13/06 8:48 PM Page ix Contents ix CHAPTER 19 Q Narratives 318 Understand the Story and You Will Understand the Business Process CHAPTER 20 Leaving Flatland 333 To Adjust Somehow after Learning That Your World Has Another Dimension CHAPTER 21 We Are the Platform 348 Some Final Observations about the System and the Mirror Index 358 02_790109 ftoc.qxp 6/13/06 8:48 PM Page x 03_790109 flast.qxp 6/13/06 8:49 PM Page xi FOREWORD ince 1978 I have worked in the high-tech sector as a sales and mar- Sketing executive, a marketing and strategy consultant, an author of books like Crossing the Chasm and Inside the Tornado, a venture in- vestor, and a public speaker. Before 1978, however, I was an English professor who taught writing and literature at a liberal arts college. What a delight for me, therefore, to encounter a business book that lives at the intersection of my two careers. This book is an experiment in discourse. It uses the medium of the story to engage the issues and ideas of business. Unlike other such experiments, such as The Goal, this book is profoundly intellectual in the very best sense of the term. And it needs to be, for it is tackling a deep idea, the no- tion that our computer systems replicate our social relationships and that managing either can be improved by learning from the other. The notion that computer and social systems are ecologically inter- twined is at first startling, but within seconds it becomes commonplace. Of course they are intertwined—how could they not be? But then why have we not made more of this in the past? Well, that is what bright ideas are all about: they show us things we are pretty sure we already knew but have never brought properly into focus. The stories Stuart tells are compelling in their own right. He is a good writer, and it shows. The book is a good read even if you don’t care a fig for business or technology. But if you do, it is an even better read, xi 03_790109 flast.qxp 6/13/06 8:49 PM Page xii xii Foreword provided you are willing to play your part. This book is not a how-to book. There are no 22 immutable laws of anything here nor any one- minute solutions to your daily problems, though there are lessons to be learned, and techniques that can be applied. This is a book that requires and inspires reflection. Reflection is largely missing in action in today’s business climate. At a time when the fundamentals of technology architecture and business process management are being revolutionized by the Internet and global commerce, we are far too focused on short-term transactional issues. At the opening of the 21st century, the economic torch is passing across the Pacific just as it passed over the Atlantic in the 20th century and the English Chan- nel in the 19th.