Open Source OS – Effects of Disaggregation

Continuing from the previous week, let us explore today, the complimentary technology that was required by the web-scale companies to grow their server farms.

Last week we discussed, how Google took out the costs from the hardware by designing a spec and getting the equipment contract manufactured. But Google could not have designed the hardware in isolation. They needed the hardware to work for a specific OS and needed to make sure that the OS and the hardware were compatible. Since their growth was dependent on giving fast and reliable service to their own customers, they could not afford to have overly dependent on the  Commercial OS and the roadmap published by those OS vendors. When they had disaggregated the hardware and software for the servers to lower the hardware cost, they had to make a choice of the OS and also ensure that they had control over the evolution of the software.

They chose Linux and “Googlified” it. Open source OS took the cost out of the servers. All Google had to do was its own coding team to build on and harden the OS. Given the scale, they could afford the team. But they did not stop at just the Server OS. They did many things with this team and used the capabilities to create and expand an “Open Ecosystem”. They became the drivers of technology, they set the standards and the world now depends now on the technologies they built. You need not look too far for evidence in case you have an android phone.

In fact, they have been so fascinated by the “open” that they now have tons of projects, refer the site here. Next week, we will be exploring the Controller space and how they went about disaggregating and open sourcing this part of the infrastructure. So stay tuned!