Flawed Doctrine or Flawed Strategy?

[Surferbeetle]

This month's Technology Review has a Cloud Computing briefing and one of the associated articles Conjuring Clouds may be of interest:

Much of the popularity of cloud computing is owed to a technology known as virtualization. A host computer runs an application known as a hypervisor; this creates one or more virtual machines, which simulate real computers so faithfully that the simulations can run any software, from operating systems to end-user applications. The software "thinks" it has access to a processor, network, and disk drive, just as if it had a real computer all to itself. The hypervisor retains ultimate control, however, and can pause, erase, or create new virtual machines at any time. Virtualization means that e-mail, Web, or file servers (or anything else) can be conjured up as soon as they're needed; when the need is gone, they can be wiped from existence, freeing the host computer to run a different virtual machine for another user. Coupled with management software and vast data centers, this technology allows cloud providers to reap massive economies of scale. And it gives cloud users access to as much computing power as they want, whenever they want it.

The dream of on-demand computing--a "utility" that can bring processing power into homes as readily as electricity or water--arose as soon as computers became capable of multitasking between different users

MBA school introduced me to some interesting textbooks and provided some valuable insights into why the Army has been so slow in upgrading our knowledge management tools in this war. As a result of these insights into the costs and associated timelines for cultural changes I try and temper my impatience with the understanding that many of the resource allocators have not been on the front line and are not of the 'internet generation' (skills based definition).

It has been a while since the festivities kicked off in 2001 however.

And so I ask myself how many municipalities, cities, US States, and nations are using standardized COTS Geographic Information Systems? For the frontline troop is it helpful to have inaccessible classified info buried somewhere on some arcane software program when the villagers he or she are working with already know where the weir dam is, where the irrigation ditches are, where the mill is, and who the ag folks are? Perhaps this knowledge could be used in having more villagers spend time on agricultural pursuits then on kinetic pursuits?

Standard Disclaimers (and more) apply but I found this to be a very interesting post nonetheless on the blog Free Range International: A Trip to Gardez and a Visit with the Marines

Wiki sites for TTP's, BCKS, and AKO are huge strides forward but we need more: wiki-style mapping (GIS/Google Earth) and information sharing break information stovepipes and get folks out gathering, sharing, discussing, and vetting knowledge among the participants. We do it in science and engineering and we gain valuable insights from the multidisciplinary interactions...we can do the same in the military.