[Server-devel] location and muscle of the school server

[John Watlington]

On Feb 22, 2008, at 2:35 AM, Sameer Verma wrote:

> Ivan Krstić wrote:
>> On Feb 22, 2008, at 2:20 AM, Sameer Verma wrote:
>>> Can caching be accomplished on low power XO like machines?
>>
>>
>> You'll have to ask a more specific question to get a good answer.
>>
>> --  
>> Ivan Krstić <krstic at solarsail.hcs.harvard.edu> | http://radian.org
>>
> OK. Here's what I was thinking about. If the likes of Moodle, etc.  
> can run on a machine at a data center, and caching can happen on a  
> XO like machine which acts as a gateway to the outside, that would  
> take the load off of repeat download of content files. In this  
> scenario, the machines on site are still of a low power profile and  
> the power hungry apps run at the data center.

And what are you going to store that cached data on ?    Right now,  
the most cost effective storage
is a single SATA disk drive, which is exactly what I am planning on  
using for that cache storage.
Once you've admitted that you need a machine local to the school  
doing caching (and network
services, and presence services), you've reinvented the school server!

We always intended that the school server was merely one more cache  
in the chain.   It was never
intended to be the "data store" that kept all of a kid's data, or all  
of their library.    That IS done on
servers located in a more favorable environment.

wad