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posted on Friday, January 16, 2009 4:08 AM
While doing some research on a related topic I dug into the technical aspects of Obama's Blueprint For Change. The plans around technology are fairly nebulous, with a few exceptions, such as those related specifically to broadband access:  Deploy Next-Generation Broadband: Barack Obama believes we can get broadband to every community in America through a combination of reform of the Universal Service Fund, better use of the nation’s wireless spectrum, promotion of next-generation facilities, technologies and applications, and new tax and loan incentives.
On this front, a U.S. House committee recommended yesterday that $6B of an $825B stimulus package be spent on broadband, specifically as a means to extend broadband access to the 5-10% percent of Americans who currently do not have this access. The U.S. Census Bureau's population clock, based on census data from 2000 and growth estimates, places the U.S. population at 305,625,174 this morning. That means 15,281,258 to 30,562,517 people do not have access to broadband that would allegedly have access if such a plan were implemented. Assuming such a plan is implemented, and further assuming that the 15-30 million folks who suddenly have broadband access also have the means and the inclination to "get online", the implications for IT in general is staggering. No one is left unaffected, I assure you. Obviously some of these millions of new users will be cruising Wikipedia, and YouTube, and joining Twitter. They'll be shopping online and using their newfound powers of digital access for online banking. They'll be playing games and friending folks on Facebook, reading blogs and finding the manual for that learning cuckoo clock from VTech that annoys everyone in the house so they can reset the time to be correct. Just shut up, already, Chirpy, before I take your batteries out. They'll be online and generating traffic, no matter where they go or what they do. That means an increase in web traffic, and Internet traffic in general. That means that the depletion of IPv4 addresses will undoubtedly accelerate, and that the core infrastructure binding the Internet together may need an upgrade. That means more requests on websites, which may mean organizations need to consider whether they have the capacity to serve a few million additional requests a day. It means more users generating more traffic using essentially the same network pipes as we have today. More congestion, more packet loss, less responsive applications. Current trends are toward consolidation, not expansion. Current trends are toward less spending, not more. Current trends may run headlong into change and cause a meltdown unless we're prepared. There are some things you can do to prepare that don't necessarily negatively impact your consolidation efforts. Consider how you can use an application delivery solution to: The right application delivery solution can aid in consolidation efforts, improve reliability and availability, and increase user satisfaction by reducing response time through application acceleration even when faced with spikes and increases in traffic. It can make your entire infrastructure, virtual or not, more efficient, which means you can serve more users with the same - and sometimes less - servers. And with tight budgets, it's a sound economic investment according to expert Jim Metzler. None of that $6B is likely to be handed over to your organization for upgrades or improvements to your infrastructure to handle the potential increase in users and traffic. That's left completely up to you. Aren't you the lucky one...        
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