[ Cloud Computing ] Re: why virtualization?

Dan,
It is an interesting observation. Let me try to reconcile the two tenets.
If we look at this problem from 'bin packing' point of view, both tenets seem to complement each other.
Bin packing problem is an old operations research problem about packing several bins of known volumes with multiple smaller (by Volume) objects. To apply this model to the grid world: let us think of grid nodes as bins above, let us interpret bin volume as computational capacity of a node, let us think that computational tasks/applications are the objects with which we pack the bins(nodes).
Then this 'bin packing view' of grid computing becomes: how to allocate multiple computational tasks to several nodes in a near-optimal way (given certain constraints). This problem is NP complete, so we can strive only for near optimal allocation. The closeness to optimum is dependent on the size of the tasks: the smaller they are the better (more densely) we can pack the cluster.
So, having smaller virtualized tasks (tenet 1) allows us to get better overall optimization (aggregation is your terms) (tenet 2).
Boris

--- On Wed, 12/17/08, Dan Kearns <dan.kearns@gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Dan Kearns <dan.kearns@gmail.com>
> Subject: [ Cloud Computing ] why virtualization?
> To: cloud-computing@googlegroups.com
> Date: Wednesday, December 17, 2008, 9:05 AM
> Out of curiosity.... it seems to me that two pretty
> fundamental tenets of
> cloud computing are contradictory:
>
> Virtualization: a mechanism to get better utilization of
> existing hardware
> when loads are generally smaller than node capacity, or
> spiky in the time
> domain
>
> Griddiness: (for lack of a better word) the idea that
> appropriate cloud
> designs support massive scale, and do it by aggregating
> many small+cheap
> failure-prone compute units with smarter software
>
> If the goals are to have smarter software and maximize
> utilization (or
> minimize power consumption for equivalent compute
> capacity), then why
> introduce the constant runtime overhead of virtualization
> instead of, eg
> using smaller more power-efficient compute-unit designs and
> making the
> hardware controllable by software?
>
> Am I missing something, or is virtualization a tactical
> answer and therefore
> a short-term solution, and not a great place to start
> building management
> frameworks (for example) on top of?
>
> -d
>
>

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