Abstract :
Summary form only given. A computer of any real size today is built around from computing components (the things we used to call servers), storage components (the things we used to call filers) and data-center-scale backplane (the thing we used to call network switches). Mostly, the construction of these systems are left as an Exercise for the User, but that\´s changing rapidly. Patterns around compute-storage-network virtualization are emerging, and are apt to coelesce, finally, into some coherent view of a interconnect-centered system, with fundamental concepts of balance and having a "real" O/S. We\´ll take an historical view of the evolution of computers whose backplane is in fact a network from both an interconnect and software systems view. Then we\´ll speculate wildly on the future of network-scale systems, and hope to identify What\´s Important in the design of big systems and their interconnection.
