Embedded systems have invaded our lives for some time now. They're in everything from digital watches to the ABS brakes in our cars.
They're also in our computers, performing dedicated tasks that, if left to the general-purpose side of our systems, would probably take more resources and add more overhead than warranted by the importance of their tasks.
While embedded systems are handy to have around, traditionally they've also been a bear to deal with. They work well as long you leave them to their single-minded tasks. Getting them to do something your way isn't always an easy--if indeed possible--thing to accomplish. So would you jump at the opportunity to use an embedded system as your Internet server?
Eric Uner and Eric Hauk, the co-founders of Bodacion Technologies and originally from Motorola where they designed embedded systems, would offer a resounding "Yes!" as the answer to that question, and they'd point you toward their company's Hydra "Invulnerable Internet Server" as the ideal product for your needs. The myth of the Hydra is that if you cut off one head, two more appear in its place. The truth about Hydra is that it has no operating system layer--effectively, it's headless. And that, say the two Erics, is exactly what you need. In fact, they claim that Hydra tight security is thanks to the use of high-order mathematics to generate passwords and other security features, and that it's hacker-proof and you can throw away your firewall. (Didn't we hear something similar about Cisco Systems' PIX series of firewalls a while ago?)
Uner and Hauk aren't Johnny-come-latelys to IT. They are also the parent company of Bodacion, Virtual Media, which offers outsourcing, Web hosting, and design services. That's what pushed them to develop Hydra. According to Eric Uner, during one year of operation they lost two of their five RS/6000s to hardware failure, some of their Linux systems were cranky, and various and sundry pickable nits arose with their HP and Solaris servers. Like the grain of sand irritating the oyster, that was how the concept for Hydra was formed.
Like HP, Bodacion has designed the Hydra around CompactPCI architecture-basically a chassis with a backplane, cards that plug into the backplane, and mezzanine cards that plug into those cards. The system board has a built-in 10/100 Ethernet connection and a card that will provide multiple-gigabit interfaces. The mean time between failure is expected to be in excess of 12 years. (At this point, Hydra has only been around for about a month, so Uner is working from specifications to derive the projected MTBF.)
Getting your apps into the Hydra is done via FTP, and it will accept Java or a proprietary compiled code called Genesis. No, you can't port your CC++ apps or anything else over to it (although Bodacion will do some porting for you on a time-and-materials basis). That's why Hydra is recommended as an augmentation to existing e-commerce or corporate servers where some portion of the operation needs to be most secure and where you'd like to eliminate all of that overbearing (and costly) hardware you currently use to keep the devils out of your data.
The final product is not cheap by any measure, unless you start to compare it to what it might replace. The base system runs about US$89,000 but, according to Uner, Hydra's performance while running a 366MHz PowerPC CPU is better than a four-processor Sparc/Solaris machine--which would cut your hardware costs by about 1/3. Where does the speed come from? As previously mentioned, there's no operating system, and that means tremendously less overhead. Uner cites Apache under Linux as an example. "As you launch additional connections, its scheduler starts forking off additional processes. Eventually, Linux will spend more time scheduling those processes than running them. Hydra's scheduler, on the other hand, takes the exact same amount of time whether we have one process or one thousand processes." The lack of an operating system is also the key to Bodacion's claim that the system is hacker- and virus-proof. There's just no operating system layer in which a hacker or virus can reside and do dastardly deeds.
Personally, I'm a firm believer in the "better mouse trap" concept and am highly sceptical about anything claimed to be hacker-proof. But saving $30,000 on a one-box purchase (not to mention square footage and management overhead) is a bit more pragmatic. The jury--composed of government and financial inquisitors--hasn't reached a final verdict in the month or so that the Hydra has been available. If Bodacion has actually managed to incorporate hacker-proof security and robust scheduling into its Hydra, the celebrations will be manifold. Stay tuned.
What's your take on Bodacion's "hacker-proof" server? Share your thoughts in our Talkback forum.
