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Chapter 393 Advances in Cloud Computing

Ernst spent two days at Flashbuy's headquarters before heading to the Helios Laboratory in Menlo Park.

Although the security personnel at the lab entrance knew he was the big boss, they still meticulously verified his identity before letting him through, which greatly pleased Ernst.

In the technological age, the confidentiality of technology must be strictly maintained.

As soon as I stepped into John McCarthy's office, a pleased smile immediately spread across the man's face, and he said with a hint of approval, "I heard you acquired Bell Labs?"

In the eyes of seasoned researchers like John McCarthy, Bell Labs held a status far beyond what ordinary people imagined.

Since its inception, it has achieved numerous brilliant accomplishments in the field of scientific research. From the invention of the transistor to the breakthrough in laser technology, each achievement has profoundly influenced the development of human science and technology.

The title of Bell Labs as a technological mecca is well-deserved. In the hearts of scientists, Bell Labs is like a magnet, radiating an irresistible attraction that captivates the hearts of every scientist.

In response to John McCarthy's praise, Ernst simply replied humbly, "Just lucky."

John McCarthy shook his head upon hearing Ernst's modesty, his tone clearly showing dissatisfaction. "I don't know what these people at Telephone & Telegraph are thinking. I reckon even if Mr. Bell crawled out of his grave, he'd be driven to his death by them again."

John McCarthy was very unhappy with the Telephone and Telegraph Corporation's sale of Bell Labs, feeling that it was disrespectful to scientific research and a betrayal of the hard work of countless researchers.

Bell Labs embodies the wisdom and hard work of generations of researchers, yet it has been so easily sold off, which he finds hard to accept.

However, this dissatisfaction was quickly replaced by the acquisition of Ernst, who happily said, "With Bell Labs acquired, you'll never have to worry about talent again."

However, Ernst remained calm upon hearing this, seemingly not entirely agreeing with John McCarthy's statement.

Seeing this, John McCarthy added, "I'm talking about any talent."

Ernst finally reacted somewhat, but his face showed more confusion than anything else.

He asked, puzzled, "Bell Labs' strengths are in semiconductors, basic science, and physics research. What does that have to do with other talents?"

Every research institution has its own area of ​​focus, and while Bell Labs is very strong, it also has its limitations.

Moreover, the semiconductor field alone has many different research directions. Even with its outstanding achievements in the semiconductor field, Bell Labs could not possibly be involved in all the sub-fields, let alone attract talent from other fields.

John McCarthy looked at Ernst's confused expression, shook his head slightly, and said with a hint of helplessness, "You and those guys from the Telephone and Telegraph Corporation have no idea what the real value of Bell Labs is."

"Bell Labs' value lies not only in its research achievements in specific fields, but also in its benchmark status in the scientific community and the unique research culture it has formed."

Upon hearing this, Ernst immediately dropped his previous indifference and adopted a questioning expression.

John McCarthy first gestured for him to sit down on the sofa, then thanked the assistant who brought the coffee.

After his assistant left, John McCarthy picked up his coffee cup, took a small sip, and his expression became serious. "Remember this, no one can resist the call of Bell Labs, not even a pure scientist."

He paused, then added, "Of course, I'm talking about when the salary is sufficient."

Ernst pursed his lips after hearing this.

In the end, isn't salary king?

As long as the salary and benefits are generous enough, he can poach people without needing the Bell Labs name; no one is indifferent to money.

John McCarthy seemed to see through Ernst's thoughts. He put down his coffee cup and said seriously, "If you and Bell Labs had both approached me at the same time, both to continue the cloud computing project, and you were offering me a million dollars a year while Bell Labs wasn't offering a single penny, I wouldn't have chosen you."

These words greatly surprised Ernst, who quickly asked, "Why?"

John McCarthy gave Ernst an unexpected answer: "Because I'm not short of money, I want to make a name for myself in history."

"In our circle, Bell represents success. Such a revolutionary project is worthy of a Nobel Prize."

Ernst understood that while food and clothing were important, when food and clothing were no longer a problem, there were more spiritual needs.

Is it true that when people are well-fed and clothed, they think of lust? And for these scholars, leaving their mark on history is their lust.

For seasoned scientists like John McCarthy, who have already achieved financial freedom, material needs are no longer their primary pursuit. They yearn to leave their mark on scientific history and realize a higher level of spiritual value.

Bell Labs is the platform that can provide them with such opportunities. Being able to participate in Bell Labs' major projects means that they are one step closer to the goal of making a name for themselves in history.

Bell Labs has unparalleled advantages in terms of network resources, Nobel Prize connections, and talented individuals to discuss with.

To put it more simply, it's about superstars teaming up.

Ernst couldn't help but laugh self-deprecatingly. "I originally came here to discuss with you the possibility of moving to the new Bell Labs base in Redwood City once it's fully completed, so that the Sun God Research Institute could become a research lab under Bell Labs."

"Now it seems I don't need to waste my breath," Ernst continued.

Given Bell Labs' strong appeal to scientists, even without such a proposal, John McCarthy and the Helios Institute would likely have actively sought to align themselves with Bell Labs.

John McCarthy did not refute this, but simply smiled, clearly acknowledging Ernst's idea.

Seeing this, Ernst stopped dwelling on the issue and instead inquired about the progress of the Helios Laboratory's work: "Tell me about the progress of cloud computing research and development."

John McCarthy's expression immediately turned serious, with a hint of melancholy. "How should I put it? The progress is encouraging, but the difficulty is also extremely high."

Ernst felt that what he said was like talking nonsense, but he did not show any dissatisfaction. Instead, he patiently waited for the other party to explain further.

"To realize the true concept of cloud computing, which features resource abstraction and flexible services, we must solve the core problems in three areas: virtualization technology, distributed technology, and containerization technology."

"We have basically solved the problem of virtualization technology. Through the research and optimization of related technologies, we have been able to effectively abstract and isolate hardware resources, laying the foundation for resource scheduling in cloud computing."

"Distributed technology is progressing steadily. We have already built a preliminary distributed architecture and tested it in some scenarios, achieving certain results. However, to achieve large-scale, highly reliable distributed deployment, further optimization and improvement are needed."

"As for containerization technology, it's like we're exploring from scratch. This technology is still just a theoretical concept in the industry, not even in the exploration stage, let alone having any experience or technical solutions to draw on. So no one can guarantee when it will be able to break through and be applied."

The techniques John McCarthy described were so esoteric that even with further explanation, Ernst still struggled to fully grasp the technical jargon and logic.

He frowned, not dwelling on the complex technical details, and asked directly, "I'd like to know, if it only reaches a usable standard, how long will it take to launch?"

For Ernst, what matters more is when cloud computing technology can be practically applied and whether it can quickly support the development of Flash Sale's business.

John McCarthy paused briefly to think after hearing the question.

After a moment, he shook his head and said, "I don't know what level of usability you're referring to. Different application scenarios have very different technical requirements. However, if it's just about meeting basic usage needs, then as long as distributed technology can be developed, cloud computing can be considered to a certain extent."

He further explained, "The essence of cloud computing is to achieve efficient collaboration of computing, storage, and processing of various tasks through a distributed architecture."

"To achieve this goal, virtualization and distributed technologies are sufficient to meet the basic requirements. Virtualization technology is responsible for abstracting and managing hardware resources, providing computing resources to users. Distributed technology is responsible for the distributed deployment and scheduling of these virtual resources, enabling parallel processing of tasks and efficient utilization of resources."

Upon hearing this, Ernst had a new question in mind: "So what exactly is this containerization technology you're talking about?"

Ernst was filled with curiosity about this technical term that he had never heard of before.

Containerization is a lighter-weight resource isolation technology that can isolate the library files required for application execution.

Configuration information, dependencies, and other components are packaged into a standardized container. This container boasts excellent portability, enabling it to run quickly in any environment that supports container technology, effectively resolving compatibility issues where it runs correctly in development environments but not in production environments.

He originally thought that the explanation was clear enough, but seeing Ernst's brows furrowed so deeply, he knew that Ernst still didn't understand.

Even a fool could see that Ernst was completely bewildered.

John McCarthy then put it simply: "In short, containerization technology makes it faster and easier to deploy and run cloud computing applications."

"Cloud computing without containerization is like a newborn baby, with limited capabilities, only able to handle some simple tasks, and prone to problems when migrating between different environments. But with the addition of containerization, cloud computing can truly achieve large-scale commercial applications. Theoretically, it can handle all the information in the world, has unlimited scalability potential, and its scale can reach infinity."

Now Ernst finally understood completely. To put it bluntly, without containerization technology, cloud computing can only serve a small number of companies and handle a small number of tasks. Once the number of tasks increases, the system will experience lag or even crash.

With containerization technology, the service capabilities and stability of cloud computing will be significantly improved, enabling it to meet the large-scale needs of more enterprises.

"Without containerization, to what extent can cloud computing operate smoothly?

Ernst, worried that John might not understand, thought for a moment and then rephrased his statement: "For example, can Google handle the data processing of several companies the size of Google?"

John gave him a look that said, "Who do you think you are?" and said with dissatisfaction, "For a company like Google, as long as the hardware can keep up, handling dozens of them is no problem. I'm talking about under stable operating conditions."

Ernst's eyes lit up, and he muttered to himself, "That's enough."

John McCarthy was taken aback when he heard Ernst's mutterings, but then he realized what was happening and his face lit up with excitement. He quickly asked, "You've started an e-commerce company? So you're going to build a data center and develop big data?"

"

The concepts of data center, cloud computing, and big data are easily confused.

However, these three are different technologies or concepts.

A data center is a complex collection of hardware facilities. It is a physical location that centrally processes, stores, and transmits data, providing a stable operating environment for various IT infrastructures.

Cloud computing is an information public service model based on the Internet. It uses virtualization technology to abstract the hardware resources of data centers into dynamically allocable virtual resources. Users can access these resources at any time through the network according to their needs, realizing flexible resource allocation and efficient management.

Big data is the aggregation of data characterized by its massive volume, high speed, diversity, and low value density.

Of the three, data center technology is relatively simple. In order to carry out research on cloud computing technology, the SunGod Research Institute needs to build a data center to conduct related testing. Therefore, it has accumulated some experience in data center construction.

The development of big data relies on the collection of large amounts of data, which is one of the reasons why the e-commerce industry is so important.

E-commerce platforms can collect a large amount of data, such as users' shopping behavior, consumption preferences, and browsing history. By conducting in-depth analysis of this data, a model can be created for each individual, and then the accuracy of the data analysis can be improved by continuously updating the data.

However, even seemingly basic aspects like data center construction and big data collection require huge investments.

In particular, the construction of data centers is essential for the full commercialization of cloud computing technology, which requires the establishment of numerous large-scale data centers globally.

Only when data centers are established can more data be accommodated and collected.

With these two things, Helios Labs can verify whether its cloud computing can really be widely applied and whether they are on the right track.

"I plan to start in North America and build several large data centers. Once your cloud computing technology has yielded results, we'll directly connect it to e-commerce platforms and begin trial operations."

Ernst was aware of the enormous investment required to build data centers, but fortunately, these data centers were not a one-time investment. He only needed to consider his own company, and an investment of several hundred million or even a billion dollars would be more than enough.

As for future development, Ernst plans to invest the revenue generated from cloud computing technology into the expansion and improvement of data centers, or through direct loans or bond issuance, to gradually expand the scale of data centers and achieve sustainable development.

John McCarthy was filled with anticipation after hearing Ernst's plan.

No matter how perfect the data test results are in the laboratory, they cannot compare to the value of testing in actual commercial applications.

In a laboratory environment, the scale, type, and user scenarios of the data are relatively simple and cannot truly reflect the complex situations faced by cloud computing technology in practical applications.

Once cloud computing technology is integrated with e-commerce platforms and enters the trial operation phase, the scale of data it will face will be thousands or even tens of thousands of times that of a laboratory environment.

In such practical application scenarios, the problems and shortcomings of cloud computing technology will be more easily exposed, and the discovery and resolution of these problems are of vital importance to the continuous improvement and optimization of cloud computing technology.

However, John McCarthy quickly thought of something else: "Your hard drive company, besides providing products for iTech, isn't it also preparing for the construction of a data center?"

Ernst didn't deny it, and asked with a smile, "What kind of 'big pie' do you think I need to paint for IBM to sell their hard drive business to me?"

John wasn't surprised at all, as if it were only natural. "I don't know how big this pie is, but cloud computing is definitely enough."

He was an expert in this field; he knew better than anyone how many data centers, servers, and hard drives would be needed to realize the scenario Ernst described when he invited him.

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