This text refers to questions from 39 to 41

    There are very broad trends that affect almost all industries and we can see them manifest in specific ways in each industry. Generally, there is, as if it were, a kind of a “perfect storm” gathering. With the more widespread adoption of the Internet, more and more users are turning to it for e-commerce, trading, reservations, gambling, and so on. This in turn increases the numbers of transaction and information processing that need to be conducted in near-real-time. In addition, organizations are using more and more real-time systems to analyze information on-the-fly and make automated decisions based on this information analysis in real time. This is also becoming feasible because of the significant reductions in the cost of computing infrastructure: powerful machines based on commodity x86 architectures, open source operating systems (Linux, Solaris), etc. With grid technologies (such as GigaSpaces), they can aggregate these machines into powerful computer systems previously only possible with expensive mainframes and proprietary SMP machines.

Internet: <http://www.drdobbs.com> (adapted).