Throop Wilder

Virtualization is the Great Hope of data centers and consolidated infrastructures. As software is moved into virtual machines and other exotic vehicles the efficiencies will be massive, enabling greater application density, more flexible server configurations and the ability to cook a turkey at the same time. Consequently, the notion that virtualization might have a role in wireless networks - essentially edge systems - seems counterintuitive and positively turkey-like.

Woody Allen, that famous web services guru and comedian on the side, once described James Joyce as “the most incomprehensible and hence the finest poet of his time.”

It’s the 15th century, and wireless communications are flourishing. The Cardinal, Sir Dickcheney, sensing imminent invasion from the enemy, has instructed his trusted servant Walker (for centuries known only as “W”) to deliver a message to a military outpost on the remote frontiers of the kingdom, 500 miles away. “Prepare to attack.” reads the message. W’s problem: he has to get it there in 24 hours. His only option: wireless. He runs up to the tower where the master pigeon trainer, Rummy, awaits. They exchange a secret password and W hands Rummy the message. Rummy affixes the message to one of the prize pigeons and off it flies.

It may not be illegal.

In the classic tale of French chivalry, The Three Musketeers, the intrepid heroes more often than not find themselves in predicaments that one of them-in a drunken stupor-has precipitated.