Memory Scheduling: A Case Study and an Empirical Research

Transcription

1 Memory Scheduling: Business Plan and Social Impact Chris Krawiec The George Washington University

2 Executive Summary From checking the weather on a smart phone to shopping online at Amazon, the use of software applications has become pervasive in every day life. All software applications have two elements in common: the need for memory to store and produce calculations, and an end goal of optimized performance (execution time). As we make advances in software design and development, creating increasing grand and complex applications, the importance of these two elements rapidly increases. Interestingly, as their importance increases, so to do their influences on each other; demands for more memory create a pressure within the underlying system that impacts execution time, which in turn can affect memory pressure. Unfortunately, the most common solution for these increasing demands of applications involves hardware. A team hoping to develop the latest smart phone application can hope for an advance in affordable, available hardware technology, thus reducing the limitations constraining their idea. A business seeking to provide a service supported by computer infrastructure can sink more money into purchasing expensive servers or other hardware. A consumer wanting to run the application his / her friend recommended can buy the latest smart phone with more memory and a faster processor. All of these are legitimate solutions to the growing demands of applications, but all of these require the party in question incur significant expense purchasing or developing new hardware. Recently, Google and Facebook, two companies on the forefront of modern technology, invested resources in pursuing software-based solutions to this issue. Although a new precedent for tackling the problem through software has been set, these solutions fall short of solving it. Their approaches fail to solve the problem because they focus on narrowly defined applications / environments, and do nothing to address an overloaded system. Further, their approaches inadequately resolve applications increasing memory demands, as they focus only on ensuring efficient mapping of memory to an application rather than efficient usage of memory. Improving on these past efforts and fully addressing the growing demands of applications is the goal of Memory Scheduling. Product Description Memory Scheduling is a software-based solution aimed at solving the problem of increasing memory and performance demands of today and tomorrow s software applications. It realizes this goal through a distinctive blend of new ideas and the unique application of thoroughly studied concepts borrowed from a similar problem space. This blend allows Memory Scheduling to drive at the underlying issues surrounding our target problem, fully

3 resolving them rather than just concealing the problem by addressing its symptoms. Equally important, its design allows Memory Scheduling to be flexible and modular, enabling it to be customized and deployed as a common solution in a wide range of environments. The core concept of Memory Scheduling is recognizing memory as a contested resource similar to processing power in a computer. Computer scientists and engineers have long studied how best to allocate limited processing time amongst dozens of tasks vying for it concurrently. The key realization is that many of the same techniques developed to ensure the effective, efficient allocation of processing time can be used to govern applications access to memory resources. One can then view memory in a new perspective, treating it as a transient resource that can be shuffled from application to application on demand, instead of being allocated to a single application until that application deems fit to return it. Memory Scheduling builds upon these two concepts creating a central unit within the system s operating system - a brain as it were - that can be used to define policies on when and how to shuffle memory between applications on the basis of application usage and performance data dynamically updated as the applications run. Market Analysis and Economics There are three primary markets to which Memory Scheduling is relevant: consumers, enterprise clients, and embedded systems developers / manufacturers. Each market is uniquely relevant to Memory Scheduling and offers distinct strategic value. Consumers A typical consumer may utilize anywhere from a small handful to dozens of applications daily. Such a user lacks direct control over those applications, the resources they require, or the constraints they function under. A consumer does, however, demand performance from his / her applications. S/he expects an application to execute quickly, be responsive, and to operate flawlessly side by side with other applications. These expectations factor directly into the benefits that will be realized with Memory Scheduling. Since consumers will likely be unable or unwilling to purchase the Memory Scheduling software, I can provide a personal usage license that allows them to utilize the software free of charge for non-commercial uses. They can then assist in identifying additional features, potential splinter software, and software bugs. Positive reception within a technology savvy consumer market will also provide word of mouth exposure, particularly within the businesses that employ those consumers. The number of individuals entering into the market of small

4 consumer electronics is booming, as evidenced by recent sales reports of items such as smart phones; this will provide Memory Scheduling with a constant level of exposure. Enterprise Clients Businesses have long understood that an online presence is crucial to success. In the past few years, there has been a trend towards providing services online rather than just maintaining a web presence. These businesses must either create and maintain the infrastructure that supports their online services, or they must seek assistance from a business that specializes in such infrastructure. Wherever this infrastructure exists, its efficient and effective use translates directly into dollars and cents. These businesses form an essential component of the Memory Scheduling market. I will engage such businesses through the sale of software licenses, custom development options, and technical support for Memory Scheduling. This multi-pronged approach will allow me to serve each client with the solution best suited and most relevant to their unique needs. It also allows me to develop a close business relationship with each client, increasing the client s satisfaction, making it more likely the client will suggest my software or services to peers, and providing me an avenue to advertise future products and services. Businesses are tending to create larger web presences and beginning to offer online services, which suggests this market will continue to grow. Embedded Systems Developers / Manufacturers As mentioned earlier, sales reports for small consumer electronics indicate strong growth. Fundamentally, these electronics operate using small scale computers called embedded systems. The scale of these systems places harsh constraints on the memory and processing power available to these systems, and makes the majority of software-based solutions to this problem unsuitable. Memory Scheduling can be easily adapted to provide a solution, even within the severe constraints of these systems. An approach identical to my proposed enterprise client strategy would be applicable for the embedded systems market. Through the use of Memory Scheduling these clients could leverage greater performance from their devices, potentially allowing them to explore previously infeasible applications by relaxing the limitations of the embedded system medium. Competition Memory Scheduling s two primary competitors are Google s tcmalloc and Facebook s jemalloc. Each represents a software-based attempt at solving the issues associated with the

5 problem of software applications increasing memory and performance demands. The primary shortcomings of both solutions is that they are specialized, having been developed for Google and Facebook s unique environments, and they fail to fully address the underlying issues that contribute to the overall problem. Both solutions are, however, available free of charge, which does make them particularly attractive. The first key observation to make in support of Memory Scheduling is that it eliminates the issue of applicability to a given environment by being highly customizable and modular. Memory Scheduling also directly resolves the underlying issues related to software applications resource demands, providing a more complete and relevant solution. Furthermore, it is important to note that deploying any of these solutions is both difficult and time consuming; this emphasizes the value of my configuration, custom development, and technical support services, which neither of the competitors offers. Marketing A multi-prong marketing campaign best suits Memory Scheduling. The most cost effective way of gaining exposure is to reach out to consumer technology enthusiast websites. These websites could profile the Memory Scheduling software and direct visitors to my own website for additional information, or to download a personal usage copy of the software. These users will then provide word of mouth exposure. To target the enterprise and embedded systems markets I can purchase targeted advertising services. Additionally, I can identify potential clients through further in-depth market research and contact them directly. Risks A number of potential risks do exist for making Memory Scheduling and related services a success. The leading risk is perhaps the reluctance of individuals or organizations to adopt new technology without an immediate, urgent need compelling them. This risk may be further magnified as a result of unique client environments necessitating customized deployments to observe significant memory utilization and performance enhancements, making it more difficult to convince potential clients of the benefits. This is a risk faced by all new technologies, though, and must be overcome through creation of effective marketing materials and convincing case studies to illustrate the benefits. The second most prevalent risk is being beaten to the target markets. The demands of new software applications and those applications performance have been long-standing problems. Although Memory Scheduling uses a unique perspective to tackle these problems, given the size of the market opportunity and the length of time that opportunity has existed, it is

6 plausible that additional competitors are being developed. The value added to the Memory Scheduling product through services provided will be crucial to answering any such competitors. Another credible risk is a significant advance in hardware. Software application performance is certainly a motivating factor behind research into computing hardware, however it is not the only such motivation. Businesses such as Intel and AMD focus significant research funding and efforts into developing faster, smaller, more efficient hardware. As the power of such hardware increases, the problem of growing software application demands decreases, as does the importance of providing a solution to it and its related issues. Although such a breakthrough in hardware is plausible, prior research and development efforts suggest it is highly unlikely. Furthermore, the complexity and demands of software applications continue to grow; as such, even a breakthrough in hardware power would not eliminate the value of a practical software-based solution to those demands. Moving Forward The first step of growing the Memory Scheduling product will be to finish development and reach out to enthusiast consumer websites. Once users start utilizing the personal licensed copy of the software they will create word of mouth exposure, and provide feedback to improve the product. I will leverage this exposure and additional market research to identify a small or mid-size potential client and engage it in a business relationship. This relationship will allow me to test the product in a commercial environment and better understand future potential clients needs. After iterating on the product using feedback from individual users and the client, and establishing a satisfactory deployment of the product in the client s environment, I can enlist the client to help me develop a marketing campaign to attract new clients.

7 Social Impact The primary impact that Memory Scheduling will have is enabling businesses to save money on hardware upgrades to support their service infrastructures. These savings may allow the businesses to apply that capital elsewhere, although when and how they may do so is difficult to say. Enabling businesses to make better use of their current hardware may also have the effect of driving demand for new hardware down, decreasing its production; this could have a positive environmental effect, although it could also have a negative economic impact through the reduction in manufacturing. The impact of Memory Scheduling is greater when considered from the perspective of embedded systems. Current embedded systems are severely limited in their applications due to the resource constraints placed upon them by their scale, power consumption limitations, etc. Enabling such systems to more effectively and efficiently use the resources available to them may broaden the horizon of applications for which these systems can be used. Given the prevalence of embedded systems in every day consumer electronics such as smart phones, the possibilities of such a change become nearly limitless. The risks and hazards associated with Memory Scheduling are extremely limited. The primary risk is, as I identified earlier, reducing the demand for hardware manufacturing if Memory Scheduling is widely adopted. Such a reduction could impact an array of hardware manufacturers and the economic climates local to those manufacturers. As a result of the low risk associated with the product, there likely would not be any related health issues or a need for regulation.