Google has a custom operating system in use internally, but will they have to share it when they outsource their server farms becomes the big question, at least if you believe what Sun Microsystems has to say.
Tom Foremski had an interesting conversation with a Sun executive, but the man dishing out the attention-grabbing sound bites wasn’t Scott McNealy for once, but John Loiacono, the executive VP of of Sun’s software group.
During their chat, we find the many rumors and instances of wishful thinking about Google creating an operating system have a basis in truth. As Google utilizes grid computing extensively, Loaicono confirmed Google developed an operating system to manage those grids of low-cost white-box PCs that power the all-knowing search algorithm.
Then the next bit of the conversation comes along, one that will have the likes of EDS salivating over the prospect of being the recipients of lots of pieces of paper from Google that say “Pay to the order of” and plenty of zeroes to the left of the decimal point. Foremski noted:
He also said that Google is thinking about whether it wants to be running its own data centers and developing its own software.
He suggested that Google might outsource some of its infrastructure in the future, which would make sense if grid computing and utility computing take-off. After all, a machine cycle is just a machine cycle in the world of web services–it is what you do with it that counts–not the fact that you own and manage the infrastructure.
Even though many people would love to get their hands on the Google operating system, Google may think, prudently, that having lots of gleeful hackers, crackers, and spies poring through the kernel for vulnerabilities isn’t a wise course to take. Perhaps they’ll suggest Open Solaris instead.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
