In my last column I wrote about my predictions for 2014. While it is all well and good to look ahead, I thought that before we raced too eagerly into the future, we should not forget the adage “Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors are destined to repeat them,” which in one form or another was attributed to Winston Churchill.
I recently have been reviewing several older data center properties that need to be refreshed in order to compete in the exploding colocation market. Many were generally built 20 to 25 years ago, which in computer years, roughly equates to approximately 1,000 years past the Paleolithic era of human development. A prime example of that era is the original ENIAC “Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer,” built for the U.S. Army and designed to be used for artillery ballistic firing calculations in 1946 — just after “WWII” (World War II - not the Internet 2.0). I originally thought that ENIAC was the first “electronic” computer (built using vacuum tubes), unlike its predecessors which were electromechanical-based units (consisting of relays, solenoids, index wheels, gears, and cogs). These electromechanical units were essentially highly-developed mechanical adding machines used to perform somewhat more advance math functions.