Commentary
Exposing Second Life's Data Centers
Today InformationWeek undresses Second Life and leaves it naked and trembling. We lift up its skirts and peer at its naughty bits. We open up its dresser drawers and paw through its unmentionables. In other words, we go inside the data centers and describe some of the server and software technology that keeps the virtual world running.
Today InformationWeek undresses Second Life and leaves it naked and trembling. We lift up its skirts and peer at its naughty bits. We open up its dresser drawers and paw through its unmentionables. In other words, we go inside the data centers and describe some of the server and software technology that keeps the virtual world running.
More Insights
White Papers
- Creating the Enterprise-Class Tablet Environment - by Yankee Group
- How To Regain IT Control In An Increasingly Mobile World - by BlackBerry
Reports
More >>Webcasts
- Maximize ROI with Database Consolidation onto Private Clouds
- Outsourcing Security: What Every Potential Cloud Security Customer Should Know
For those of you who are too hot and bothered to read the complete article, here are some highlights: The software architecture is an extension of the virtual world metaphor of Second Life. Each instantiation of the server architecture of Second Life controls a specific area of virtual real estate, and is assigned to a specific server, or a specific processor on a larger server. The server software -- called "simulators," or "sims" -- moves around, based on server crashes or downtimes. Still, at any time, it's possible to walk into one of Second Life's two data centers, pat one of the rack-mounted servers, and say that particular server is running virtual New York, or San Francisco, or ancient Rome.
Linden Lab, which develops and maintains Second Life, runs 2,000 Intel- and AMD-based servers in two co-location facilities in San Francisco and Dallas.
Read the article for more on Linden Lab's open source plans (although not too much more -- they're not saying much), and how Linden Lab is coping with the explosive growth of Second Life.
What else would you like to know about Second Life technology? Do you know any Second Life secrets you'd like to share with our readers?
Related Reading
| To upload an avatar photo, first complete your Disqus profile. | View the list of supported HTML tags you can use to style comments. | Please read our commenting policy. | |
|
|
T-Shirt Giveaway: Each week we're selecting one great comment from our readers. The author of the comment will receive an InformaitonWeek Community t-shirt. So get posting! |
Subscribe to RSSResource Links
This Week's Issue
Technology Whitepapers
- Creating the Enterprise-Class Tablet Environment - by Yankee Group
- How To Regain IT Control In An Increasingly Mobile World - by BlackBerry
- The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet's Good Bones - by BlackBerry
- Red Alert: Why Tablet Security Matters - by BlackBerry
- New Visual and Wizard-Driven Paradigms for Exploring Data and Developing Analytic Workflows












