 | magellan (153)
04/16/2008 |  There's not too many tech bloggers who write well enough or think deeply enough to carry a book. Nick Carr pulls it off, however.
The Big Switch is macro analysis. It first takes a historical look at the electricity industry and its migration from enterprise owned private generators to massive electrical grids that power entire regions, as well as the idealistic expectations, economics, and unexpected consequences associated with this migration.
Carr then makes the case that computing will follow the same route, and he backs up his claim by exploring the giant computing grids that companies like Google and Amazon are building, and the plots of land near hydroelectric power that these companies are snapping up. Enterprise computing with its locally owned servers and the enterprise software that run on them will go away - replaced by massive computing clouds that will provide storage, processing, and applications from the cloud. He also believes that ubiquitous cloud computing, like ubiquitous electricity, will bring unexpected costs to society along with its obvious benefits.
Carr is a very strong writer, and has clearly done his research. As a blogger, Carr sometimes succumbs to a tendency to belittle opposing viewpoints - as an author, he seems able present both sides of an argument fairly.
I enjoyed the book, and I strongly recommend it.
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