By: Mark
Coggin
(Senior
Director, Product Marketing Platform, Red Hat)
As we make the
shift to the cloud era, computing’s traditional building blocks are
increasingly abstracted away. This is fueled by the advent of
hypervisors, virtual machines, public clouds, and application
containers. Despite being roughly
sixty
years old and existing in an industry that sees tectonic shifts
at least once a decade, the operating system remains a rock solid
foundation and the underpinning of modern information technology. Why
is it that this core building block will not quietly go away?
The functions
that the operating system provides are critical to computing - as
long as there are systems with memory to manage, I/O to arbitrate,
processes to schedule, and storage or networks with which to
interface, the operating system remains vital.
Does abstracting
the operating system make these functions less important?
While we do not
notice the electricity and water that sustain our homes and office
buildings every day, no one would dare say that they are irrelevant.
As the sources for these and other utilities have been abstracted,
we’ve grown accustomed to their availability; we take them for
granted.
The operating
system has also evolved to become such a utility.
It is pervasive and ubiquitous, and we don’t notice it because it
just works.Critical not only to the function of enterprise IT, the
operating system lies at the core of our daily lives, serving as the
underlying force of IT consumerization. The operating system is
everywhere – it is in our mobile phones, our
cars, our smart DVD players, and our
thermostats.
IDC predicts that there “will
be approximately 212 billion ‘things’ globally by the end of
2020”, including a large percentage of intelligent systems that
will be installed and collecting data across consumer and enterprise
applications. The operating system helps us to control and connect
with the Internet of Things around us.
And let’s not
forget the application, which needs an operating system to provide
system services as well as linkage to its dependencies -- the
required software libraries, run time components, and device drivers.
The application may be king, but the operating system is its castle –
providing the foundation, the resources, and the security for the
application to thrive.
Those who claim
that the operating system is irrelevant are trying to shift your
focus from this critical technology because it’s in their best
interest to do so. Beer manufacturers will point out that drinking
beer after exercise will hydrate you slightly
better
than water – of course, beer
is 95% water.
Regardless of
technical advancements, the operating system remains at the core of
enterprise computing. It is here to stay, and will forever be
foundational to our interconnected world.
*****
A proven
business development and marketing executive with more than 20 years
experience in the technology industry, Mark Coggin is senior director
of product marketing for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat's flagship
product and the No. 1 Linux operating system worldwide. He is
responsible for leading the development of Red Hat Enterprise Linux's
go-to-market strategies, messaging and positioning, and global
campaigns. Prior to joining Red Hat, Coggin was senior director of
global alliances for Progress Software and senior director of
strategic partnerships for Yahoo. While at Yahoo, he launched and
managed a successful broadband partnership with Verizon, driving
growth of both its DSL and FiOS offerings. Coggin holds a bachelor's
degree and a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester
Polytechnic Institute, a master's degree in Management from MIT Sloan
School of Management, and a master's degree in Materials Science and
Engineering from MIT.
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