Network Distributed Computing: Fitscapes and Fallacies

MAX K. GOFF, former Technology Evangelist for the Java Software Division of Sun Microsystems, travelled worldwide for six years, discussing the benefits of Java and related technologies, notably Sun's Jini protocols for developing distributed computing systems, intelligent devices, and self-configuring networks. With 20 years in software development, Goff left Sun in 2003 to leverage his technology experience in a private consulting practice for merger and acquisition events, representing more >>

MAX K. GOFF, former Technology Evangelist for the Java Software Division of Sun Microsystems, travelled worldwide for six years, discussing the benefits of Java and related technologies, notably Sun's Jini protocols for developing distributed computing systems, intelligent devices, and self-configuring networks. With 20 years in software development, Goff left Sun in 2003 to leverage his technology experience in a private consulting practice for merger and acquisition events, representing medium-sized firms in the United States. Goff holds an Executive MBA from the University of San Francisco and is a professional-level member of the World Future Society.

Networked distributed systems: Foundations, breakthroughs, and implications

• Building tomorrow's ubiquitous, pervasive networked computing systems
• Technologies, protocols, messaging, software, integration, collaboration, security, and more
• Avoiding the eight classic fallacies of distributed computing
• The role of XML, Web services, Spaces, Jini, and other key technologies
• Ten powerful megatrends driven by networked distributed computing

Networked distributed computing (NDC) systems are driving an ongoing technological revolution that has already spawned the Internet and will soon transform the world into one ubiquitous, pervasive "information field." In Network Distributed Computing: Fitscapes and Fallacies, Max K. Goff reviews the field's crucial challenges, state-of-the-art solutions, and breathtaking future. Goff covers both the "trees" and the "forest"-showing how NDC has evolved, where it's headed, and above all, what it all means.

• Building NDC "fitscapes": new frameworks that turbocharge innovation
• Leveraging Moore's Law, Gilder's Law, Metcalfe's Law, and the latest R and D advances
• Overcoming the eight classic fallacies of distributed computing
• Enhancing collaboration, security, and dependability in networked computing environments
• Integrating wired and wireless networks: key software challenges
• Messaging and communications protocols for distributed, interoperable systems
• The roles of XML, Web services, Spaces, Jini, and other key technologies
• NDC-driven megatrends: Semantic Web, global transparency, nanotech, robotics, and beyond

style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Optima'>The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them. —Albert Einstein

style='font-size:11.5pt;font-family:AGaramond-Rmn'>The first time a baby breathes, systems designed to ease the transition from one life-support stage to the next kick in, and a mandatory cry launches the baby's lungs on their new mission: breathing air instead of "breathing" amniotic fluid. This sort of systemic state transition, fundamental to so many biological phenomena, is also critical to complex adaptive systems of other kinds, including networks of computers. It is within this shared context that I ask you to consider this volume.

style='font-size:11.5pt;font-family:AGaramond-Rmn'>When I initially proposed some of the ideas for this book, my intent was to provide a balanced overview of network distributed computing (NDC) frameworks for software developers, including comparisons between them from the perspective of L. Peter Deutsch's Eight Fallacies of distributed computing. But as with most complex endeavors, the work evolved as it progressed. In particular, the notion of astyle='font-size:11.5pt;font-family:AGaramond-Itl'>fitscapestyle='font-size:11.5pt;font-family:AGaramond-Rmn'>became a common thread. I have Greg Doench of Prentice Hall PTR to thank for blessing the term and recognizing the strength of the metaphor as such.

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