In data center networking the pace of change has been dramatic, but according to this CBR story there is an evolution going on in and around the network. Corporate networks must now handle voice thanks to Voice over IP, video thanks to YouTube, pictures thanks to Facebook and Flickr and far more.
“The network is still the computer. It was Jon Gage, Sun Microsystems’ chief researcher and vice-president of the Science Office, who is credited with coining the phrase, ‘The network is the computer’ back in 1984. It’s a phrase that Sun Microsystems adopted as its rallying cry, and it’s a phrase resonating even more in 2010.
“Gage coined the phrase to describe the emerging world of distributed computing. But it was only about three years after the stand-alone, non-networked PC had been introduced to the workplace, and most people dismissed Gage’s idea as nuts. The power appeared to be in the box on or under their desk running Windows, and the only cabling was to connect the mouse, monitor and keyboard and plug the thing into the power socket.”
