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The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google |  | Author: Nicholas Carr
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
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Rating:  63 reviews
Sales Rank: 9551
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 0393333949
Dewey Decimal Number: 004
EAN: 9780393333947
ASIN: 0393333949
Publication Date: January 19, 2009
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Product Description
"Future Shock for the Web-apps era.... Compulsively readable—for nontechies, too."—Fast Company Building on the success of his industry-shaking Does IT Matter? Nicholas Carr returns with The Big Switch, a sweeping look at how a new computer revolution is reshaping business, society, and culture. Just as companies stopped generating their own power and plugged into the newly built electric grid some hundred years ago, today it's computing that's turning into a utility. The effects of this transition will ultimately change society as profoundly as cheap electricity did. The Big Switch provides a panoramic view of the new world being conjured from the circuits of the "World Wide Computer." New for the paperback edition, the book now includes an A–Z guide to the companies leading this transformation.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 63
 Utility Computing December 27, 2007
Thomas E. Hayden (Evanston, IL, United States)
43 out of 50 found this review helpful
In the Big Switch, Nicholas Carr walks readers through the history of electrification and computing. The early years of electrification were technologically limited - an electrical grid wasn't feasible and electricity was generated locally. Technology changed over time and electricity was rapidly centralized and networked. Power was produced remotely and delivered via a vast network of wires and cables. Over time, technology changed the way we live and do business.
Based on this historical context, he draws a metaphor between electrification and the current model of computing. We're coming from a client-server model to a new model, what Carr calls "Utility Computing". He argues, like electrification, this is mostly facilitated by advances in network technology. In a utility computing environment, some firms act as utilities and merely provide a platform, while others develop applications to run on this platform. He cites Amazon's EC2 (Elastic Computing Cloud) and S3 (Simple Storage) services as examples; Amazon provides a centralized utility that users can quickly and at marginal cost, tap in to and rapidly develop scalable applications.
To people in the computing industry, Carr isn't saying anything new. Many of us are in the middle of transitioning our own applications from an older client-server model to a web-based or utility based model. However, I think Carr does a great job at building the metaphor between electrification and computing. While, they are very different types of services, the historical context he clearly lays out shows how network effects can disrupt existing models of utility.
However, I think Carr should have spent more time discussing some of the social implications of this technological shift. Just like how electrification changed the way we socially interact, utility computing has the power to do the same. Utility computing affords more decentralization and standardization of application development. What kind of impact is this going to have on highly complex businesses and what are the implications for users and managers? Some would argue that the technological development of Groupware in the 1980s had major social impacts on social relations in a business context. Likewise, I think utility computing will have similar effects. I wish Carr would have approached some of these more complex social questions in further detail.
Otherwise, from someone working in the industry - I think Carr is right on the button and this book is definitely a "must read" for someone in the information industry.
The Dark Underside of the Internet October 23, 2008
D. S. Bornus (St. Paul, MN)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
In the 1990's the internet was heralded as a transformative medium that would level society and provide free information. Now after the "dot-com bust", we are seeing a different perspective. Carr describes how the internet is indeed having profound effects, and some of them may not be as benign as we anticipated:
* professionalization dwindling in the wake of internet amateurs/volunteers doing the work.
* "unbundling" of services and media - so that we only look at what's most attractive and ignore other things (which may be actually more important)
* IT departments disappearing as everyone accesses computing services as a generic "utility" provided by an outside vendor.
* our every action on the net is tracked/recorded/compiled, whether we think we are "anonymous" or not, and this info is of intense interest to industry and government.
* cyberspace isn't as immune to censorship and government control as we thought.
Carr's thesis is that "computing" will increasingly be done by outside vendors whom we all will access/interface with. He likens it to the growing acceptance and ubiquity of public electrification as a "utility" that replaced in-house power/lighting sources (generators, gaslight, etc.)
However, I didn't completely agree with his analogy. The big difference between electricity and computing is that computing involves information, which is infinitely more valuable. If someone taps into my electrical power, my lights might brown out. But if someone taps into my data, it could be disastrous and irremediable. For this reason, I have doubts as to whether business, governments and individuals will be quite so willing to rely so heavily on an outside vendor for their computing and critical infrastructure. It's one thing if you're running a business like a photoshop utility or blog. It's quite another when you're handling sensitive financial information or public safety systems which cannot be allowed to fail or be compromised.
However, the book does provide rich food for thought and so I recommend it. I just caution that in the 1990's there was a lot of hubris associated with the "power" of the internet. In this book, it seems like some of the hubris has just assumed a different form and should still be taken with a grain of salt.
A Fascinating Look at What Lies Ahead for Us in Technology November 10, 2008
Robert L. Stinnett (Boonville, MO)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RFIY656SRH4RU What does electricity and computing have to do with each other, besides the fact you need electricity to make your computer work? In "The Big Switch" you are taken on a fascinating journey to show how computing is following much the same path as elecricity did when it was first rolled out to the masses. Whereas there was a time when electricity was generated on-site where it was needed, the same can be said of computing power today -- we have our own IT departments and computer installations. In the future the author argues much of this will be moved to the "cloud" where our ideas of how we use computers will change radically. In this video I walk you through some of the concepts of cloud computing and introduce you more to this fascinating book that is sure to have IT-geeks and non-geeks alike reading to find out what lies ahead for us in the not too distant future.
Important to Think About! January 29, 2009
Loyd E. Eskildson (Phoenix, AZ.)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Carr spends the first half of the book building an impressive case for centralized computing (similar to centralized power generation), and the last half presenting the downsides to that case. Thus, the book is balanced, but not totally convincing.
Google's search engine is the best example of utility computing. Big technology companies (eg. Microsoft, Oracle, SAP) have made billions selling the same systems to thousands of companies; centralization will dry those sales up. Further, by 2000, the average American company devoted 45% of its capital equipment budget to IT. However, a recent study of six corporate data centers found that most of their servers were using less than one-quarter of the available processing power, and data storage systems average between 25-50% utilization. Running a large data-center could cost $1 million/month for electricity.
Google Apps now includes word processing, spreadsheets, email, calendars, IM - for $50/employee/year. Nearly every traditional business application now has an equivalent offered on the Internet; McKinsey found 61% of large companies planned to use at least one utility software service during 2007.
Amazon has gotten into the business of renting out capacity and storage - it's set up for the heaviest loads the week after Thanksgiving, and sometimes uses only 105 of the power itself. It now rents out the surplus; software allows users to jointly share individual servers.
Unbundling: Few newspapers, other than specialized ones like the Wall Street Journal, are able to charge for online editions. The success of on-line newspaper stories depends on getting a lot of readers interested in high-priced ads. Advertisers no longer can count on readers leafing through a paper and thus seeing many/most of the ads. An article about new treatments for depression would tend to be especially lucrative since it would attract expensive (advertisers can raise their payments to drown out others in selected situations) drug ads and draw large numbers interested in new (expensive) treatments. Similarly, articles on saving for retirement, new cars, or putting on a home addition.
However, an article on government corruption or the resurgence of malaria in Africa wold not do well; neither would any other serious and/or complex subject. Publishing stories on consumer products (eg. HD-TV) not only gets better advertising interest, but allows use of cost-saving content of reviewers' own contributions.
Similarly, iTunes has unbundled music, making it easy to buy by song rather than the album.
Research has found that people have an affinity for those thinking similarly, and their views (biases) become amplified doing so. The Internet allows this this polarization to increase.
Internet Negatives: At the end of 2006, 94% of all emails sent over the Internet were spam, up from 38% in 2004. An estimated 10-25% of all Internet computers are infected with botnet viruses, and those zombie networks are responsible for 80% of spam. These networks are also used to create denial-of-service overloads.
Data security is another problem.
On the other hand, many major American corporations - G.E., American Express, Verizon, IBM, G.M., have already shifted large IT chunks to India and China. Thus, they feel safe from these Internet threats.
From the Early Electrical Grid to Today's Computer Industry February 10, 2009
Sacramento Book Review (Sacramento, CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In the best selling book, "The Big Switch," Carr ("Does IT Matter?," "Is Google Making Us Stupid?") shows the parallels between the early development of the electrical grid system and today's transition in the computer industry. When electricity began its development, many businesses used local sources for power, including as local as a waterwheel or windmill on their own property. As the electrical grid developed, businesses were able to get power delivered, from where they didn't know or really care, as long as it came. In the computer industry, much of the same transition is going on; instead of using programs on your PC, more and more businesses are using Web 2.0 technology to host their mission critical software somewhere else, and they don't really know where, or care. No one knows where the YouTube servers are, you just have your link to the videos you need or want, and put that on your web site.
The universalness of electricity drove so many revolutions in the years that followed; transportation, the middle class and a mass culture to name a few. Carr makes the argument that this switch from local computing to cloud computing will also bring seismic shifts in business, technology and culture, and that those shifts have already begun. Some of his conclusions aren't all that hopeful--a consolidation of wealth, further decline in print publishing, a reduction in the middle class, and a continuing erosion of privacy. As Carr points out, we can't begin to imagine the changes coming, it will be our children's adulthood that will really begin to see what the big switch will bring. (This is a paperback release of last year's hardcover. It includes a new list of the 20 companies that Carr feels best reflects the potential of cloud computing.)
Showing reviews 1-5 of 63
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