1. The Rise of Dynamic
Computing
David Aronoff
General Partner
Flybridge Capital Partners
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2. DESPITE ARCHITECTURAL CHANGES OVER TIME, APPLICATION
DEVELOPERS HISTORICALLY HAD FEW CHOICES TO MAKE
• Monolithic platforms force
“one-size fits all” approach
• Architectures tend to be
bloated, brittle and energy
intensive
• In the immediate period
after the emergence of
internet application
platforms, innovation and
opportunities for new
entrants were constrained
1960s Early 2000s
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3. RECENT MARKET FORCES HAVE BLOWN THIS MONOLITHIC,
ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL APPLICATION PLATFORM APART
Cloud Open
Computing Source
Dynamic
Scripting
Virtualization
Languages
Exposed
Data Flows
& APIs
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4. INVESTMENT IMPLICATIONS
Themes Implications
1. Developer-Driven Business ➟ Low cost, widespread adoption, wedge for
Models growing additional sales
2. Legacy Applications Don’t ➟ Customers seek out alternatives as
Translate Well traditional solutions no longer work given
distributed topologies & ownership
3. “Big Data” Analytics of ➟ For 1st time can analyze global, real-time
Exposed Data Flow & APIs behavior of users, applications & interactions
4. New Opportunities Emerge ➟ Disaggregation creates distinct problems and
new applications that were unforeseen
5. Purpose-Built Foundation ➟ Innovator’s Dilemma for incumbents creating
Technologies opportunities for big swings in core
technology
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5. EXAMPLES
Themes Example Companies
1. Developer-Driven Business
Models
2. Legacy Applications Don’t
Translate Well
3. “Big Data” Analytics of
Exposed Data Flow & APIs
4. New Opportunities Emerge
5. Purpose-Built Foundation
Technologies
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Notas del editor
As you know, the two dominant sectors we target are enterprise IT and consumer infrastructure. Over the years, we have seen and invested in several inflection-point changes in these sectors - changes that have brought with them tremendous opportunities for new companies and innovation We're convinced we're in the midst of another such moment right now. It's more profound than simply jumping on the cloud-computing or mobile app bandwagons While these are important elements for certain, we see them as part of a larger shift we're calling "Dynamic Computing"
When we look at the evolution of computing, from the nexus with mainframes in the 1960s, through the Minicomputer, the PC revolution and into the advent of the commercial Internet in 1990’s, remarkably all these paradigms relied upon a relatively homogenous and monolithic architecture. This made sense at the start, because ubiquitous adoption of computing required establishment of a uniform standard platform. It gave rise to the generation of behemoths that persist today, like Microsoft, Intel, Oracle, SAP, et al But the strengths of this ecosystem, namely uniformity and backward compatibility have become their Achilles heels in the expanding world of the Internet – and these architectures have become bloated, expensive and energy hogs Combined with the intense industry consolidation that followed with the Internet bubble bursting at the turn of the century, innovation and new startup activity in the sector languished.
But more recently, the confluence of several core technology developments have exploded the traditional monolithic platform creating a fundamental revolution in how computing solutions are created and delivered This is what we call Dynamic Computing, and it comprises the following components:Open Source – the movement that began with Linux in the 1990s was the initial catalyst, bringing low cost, high quality software – and most importantly – CHOICE Virtualization – originally conceived to get performance boosts from underutilized Intel chips, set the foundation for scalability and migration well beyond a single rack within one data center Cloud Computing – though the press has forgotten, what really began as ASPs, MSPs and SSPs, a decade ago, has lowered the cost of development and deployment infrastructure by orders of magnitude creating costs that scale with usage, which is critical to capital-constrained startups Dynamic Scripting Languages – such as python and Ruby – have made development faster, portable and scalable And Finally, public APIs have permitted two fundamental and ground-breaking changes:They allow applications to be dynamically assembled from best of breed providers, irrespective of geographic proximity.They provide the opportunity for unfettered access to previously unavailable data, the so-called “Big Data” firehoses. Add global affordable broadband, and the result is a set Dynamic Computing solutions that can be seamlessly split over great distances with no visible performance degradation.