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| Lessons in Grid Computing: The System Is a Mirror | 
| Author: Stuart Robbins
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $34.95
Buy New: $19.33
You Save: $15.62 (45%)
Buy New/Used from $17.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  (5 reviews)
Sales Rank: 724464
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.2 x 1.5
ISBN: 0471790109
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.4038
EAN: 9780471790105
ASIN: 0471790109
Publication Date: July 21, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
"You should not overlook the potential genius in this concept."
--Geoffrey Moore, consultant and author, Dealing with Darwin
"Since he first identified 'information systems as mirrors of the people who build them' for me, I have seen it operate in many ways. It is a fascinating idea, and a completely new way of thinking about technology."
--Sean Moriarty, Chief Operating Officer, Ticketmaster
"This book makes for compelling reading--it's easy to become immersed in the stories, and the insights gradually grow in the reader's mind as they take root in the character's minds. This is quite a useful work. The ideas presented here could be quickly put to practical use in any organization."
--Mohamed Muhsin, VP and CIO, The World Bank
A breakthrough exploration of information systems as mirrors of the people who build them.
Packed with truer-than-life stories, stimulating characters, and unique IT analysis, Lessons in Grid Computing finally declares:
* Our systems will not "talk to each other" if our people are not talking to each other
* We must transform ourselves to the same degree that we want to transform our systems
* To correct problems in our information systems, we must first address the problems between the people that build and support them
Discover how to adjust your management style to enable the next generation of technologies with the help of Lessons in Grid Computing.
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| Customer Reviews:
 It could have been a great book January 20, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Here are a few ideas that I kept after speed reading this book. In Information Technology (IT), we, the people are the resources. Our teams can exist only if we maintain the relationships and we can communicate among ourselves with pleasure and no constraints. If we reuse code and interfaces, we must first use them to begin with. We are the platform to build services and applications, not the operating systems and the chips..
But to say the few things like those described above, the author delves in exuberant verbose. It is obvious he has a deep love for writing fiction. There are too many words and too many stories. In a nutshell, we are told that without humans, IT systems are useless. And as humans, we must read Proust (great French writer - more quoted by others than read -) and Jung (the psychologist who described the collective unconsciousness) to understand ourselves.
This has some value. Many people think mechanical effects solve our life problems: sex techniques bring happiness, or success means selecting MacOS or Linux or Solaris. Computing, like medications prescribed by top doctors, can not bring the happiness via science and technology only.
Why writing 357 pages to say all this? This is a useful book in need to be condensed to about 10% of the book size. In each chapter , a short 5 line summary will be great.
Also the name of Grid Computing is confusing. Sure we believe one day the entire Information Technology will become a grid delivering units of compute power, the same way we have electricity today. We will not need operating systems and CPUs in our offices and homes, we will have a plug in the wall and a meter to read the computing energy used.
The book, that alludes to computing as a service delivery, does not highlight this meaning of grid computing well enough. Once we have a product eliminating the need to know technicalities like system administration, we will understand ourselves as humans first. Then we can make computer applications and services that are as natural as speech in everyday use.
I work in grid computing, I know many engineers who bought this book, thinking this is about a hands-on lesson on Grid Computing programming. They were disappointed, because the title is misleading. It attracted the audience which had totally different expectations. The real audience - IT leadership - might have overlooked the book, because of the title.
 Blends storytelling with IT analysis and business insights December 11, 2006
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Lessons in Grid Computing: The System Is a Mirror blends storytelling with IT analysis and business insights to attract any with affection for computer systems and management alike. The author believes IT systems are mirrors reflecting the dysfunctions and concepts of those who design and manage technology: chapters use fictional surveys to chart real struggles to overcome technical and management issues as a result of such a focus. The idea that computer and social systems are entwined isn't new: what is new is the identification of 'grid computing' to allow readers to understand how this affects organizational structure and achievement.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Different than what I expected, but far better... November 18, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
When I ordered this book, I expected it to be a compilation or a series of chapters on the promise of grid computing. What I got was something far different, and much more interesting... Lessons in Grid Computing: The System Is a Mirror by Stuart Robbins. Definitely worth reading and pondering (yes, I do ponder once in awhile)...
Contents:
1. The Prime Theorem - Information Systems Mirror the People that Build Them
2. Interfaces - How The Work and What Happens When They Are Broken
3. Relationship Management - We Can No Longer Manage the System as Single Nodes
4. Virtualization - A Natural Stage in the Maturity Cycle of Technologies
5. Orchestration - Finding a Sensible Order Amid Too Many Complications to Count
6. Complexity - Databases, Passwords, Collaboration, Funding, Smashed Atoms, and a Professor
7. Distributed Resources - Two Types of Diffusion - Compute Resources and Human Capital
8. Flash Teams - Analysis of New Organizational Groups from Several Perspectives
9. Network as Narrative Form - Basic Building Blocks Connected to Create Various Structures
10. Identity - Finding the Needle in the Haystack and Giving It a Name
11. Organizational Architecture - How we Organize Ourselves Is as Important as What We Say and Do
12. (Theory of) Resonant Usability - Everything Is Moving to the Presentation Layer, Where Humans Interact
13. Turbulence - Creating Stability in the Face of Chaotic Disruption
14. Libraries - Two Lives, Two Windows, and the Search for Information
15. Abstraction - Lift Yourself Above the Conflicting Details and Look for Similarity
16. Insubordination as an Asset - Why You Must Allow Employees to Disagree with Your Decisions
17. The Consortium - The Multisourced IT Organization and a Software Commons - Our Future
18. The Everysphere - An Example of Synchronous Events between "Unrelated" Objects
19. Q Narratives - Understand the Story and You Will Understand the Business Process
20. Leaving Flatland - To Adjust Somehow after Learning That Your World Has Another Dimension
21. We Are The Platform - Some Final Observations about the System and the Mirror
Index
Normally I wouldn't go into that level of detail on the table of contents, but I felt the single word chapter headings didn't give a flavor for what was going on. Robbins' premise is our information systems are mirrors of the people and groups that build them, and that management styles must change in order to build and facilitate the next level and generation of computing technology. In other words, "the systems won't talk to each other if the people are not talking to each other." All well and good, and you could easily spend 300 pages in a technical or philosophical discussion on that. But Robbins has effectively written a loosely coupled novel that takes these subjects and explores them in the lives, relationships, and companies of a series of individuals. At first, each chapter seems to be a short story on its own. But soon, characters from previous chapters start showing up in the lives of people in later chapters. And in fact, the last two chapters loop around and shed a whole new light on earlier interactions. And not all chapters are even in the same style. There's one chapter (Libraries) that maintains a story on the top half of each page, and a running monologue of the writer critiquing the story on the lower half. Very different, but strangely effective.
The overall theme explored in all the chapters is that a grid system of technology requires a grid system of management and interaction with others. Without that in place, the power of grid computing will not be fully realized. For instance, The Consortium explores a concept where a group of companies arrange to share technology and fill gaps for each other. Company A might have plenty of disk space but not much excess computing power, where company B needs more offsite backup capacity but has CPU cycles to spare. Might they form a grid and become more effective at no additional cost to either party? Simple example, but a powerful concept that can be extended to human resources. My expert DBA can work with your company on adhoc projects in his free cycles while I have access to your security specialist to help me figure out my sticky problems. Neither of us has to hire contractors that take weeks to get hired and up to speed, and we each benefit from the combined expertise.
The book does wander into some (in my opinion) overly philosophical issues at times, but the overall effect of the book with its story format is very compelling. The author does say that "pondering" the chapters is recommended, and I agree. It's a book that will definitely cause to you think about how technology will be structured in the next decade and beyond...
Practical Technology Meets Fiction October 5, 2006
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Despite my being someone with a non-technical background, I found myself loving this book, on a number of different levels, as it puts into practical and realistic stories the many complex theories, applications, and fundamental truths that are at the core of information technology and those people and organizations that make it tick.
Having met dozens of CIO's and VP's of Development at firms both huge and small, I never fully understood the context within which they existed until now. Stuart is a practical visionary, and I can honestly say "Lessons in Grid Computing" is probably the most enlightening book I've read all year.
If You Lead an IT Group, Read This Book September 6, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
If you lead an IT group you will learn something from this book, and it will be so simple that it will change how you see your job from hereafter. I recommend it to anyone who has been around the industry for even just a few years. Stuart Robbins writes as an outsider who clearly has a lot of insider information, when in fact he is an insider with an outsider's perspective. Either way, you're likely see something from your experience presented here in a different light. I will also recommend this book to anyone looking to further enhance their career opportunities in today's quick-paced, technology-enhanced world. The title is misleading in a way. This book is not about technology per se. It is about how we manage technology, and how we might prepare to manage it differently, as both technology and the population that supports it continue to evolve.
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