Microsoft’s Tafiti looks interesting but immature
Martin Veitch takes a brief look at Microsoft's Tafiti sample application.
Microsoft has uploaded an open beta of its Tafiti search site that has led to critics queuing up to admire its user interface. However, while Tafiti is noteworthy, don’t expect to dump Google anytime soon.
Tafiti requires Microsoft’s Silverlight cross-platform, cross-browser plug-in that is intended to provide a platform for rich internet applications, and also mandates that popups are enabled.
It certainly has an interesting user interface with searches conducted through a virtual index card, a “carousel” for search types and the ability to store results stacked on a “shelf”.
Some reviewers suggest that Tafiti is slow although it performed well on a standard Windows XP laptop across a corporate internet connection.
The main, indeed the overwhelming, drawback is that Tafiti is based on Microsoft’s LiveSearch, which is still lagging behind the mighty Google. Searches were largely relevant but not as good as those from the world’s most popular site.
To get a second opinion on Tafiti, I spoke to Julian Harris, senior business consultant at Conchango, a UK services firm that is behind a lot of the smartest new consumer and retail web sites, many of them based on the latest Microsoft code.
“The usability is definitely taking a back seat to the eye candy and it’s basically a showcase for Silverlight,” Julian told me.
“It looks great and it’s fun to demo but there is no help if you mistype a search query, no cached view, and you can’t even search on the [stacked searches].”
The best way to think about Tafiti is, as Julian suggests, a flag-waving exercise for Silverlight. Many such proof-of-concepts get a bit of attention then fade away. So in that sense at least, maybe Tafiti is a case of “job done” for Microsoft.
Virtually green
Everyone now accepts that virtualisation systems are pretty useful. Whether you can afford them or not is another matter, but there are enough case studies out there to prove that a well run virtualised environment can deliver the average datacenter huge hikes in utilisation rates and availability while making it far easier for administrators to test new configurations and applications without plunging the whole business into darkness.
However, there is also another benefit and it's one not many people seem to have thought about. Virtualisation is kind to the planet.
I made this discovery while putting together a series of articles on how to make your IT department more environmentally friendly. I've embarked on this task not because I have a secret desire to grow my hair, stop using deodorant, and start wearing hemp. But because - as all but the most rabid Clarksonistas now accept - the environment is a front and centre corporate issue and firms are facing increasing pressure from both the public and the government to reduce their environmental impact, not least through the technologies they use.
Which brings me back to virtualisation. In preparing the article I spoke last week with Gary Fowle, marketing director at Fujitsu Siemens Computers, about the steps IT directors could take to become greener. In amongst all the usual tips about thinking about energy consumption when making purchases and signing up with an authorised recycler he also said IT directors should really consider virtualisation as a really green technology.
I'll let him explain: "Some of the most power hungry applications are run from the datacenter and here virtualisation technologies can really help improve energy efficiency. Effectively virtualisation aims to simplify the datacenter and drive up utilisation. That means you are running the same tasks on fewer servers, using less electricity and requiring less cooling. It is a triple whammy: less servers have to get made, they are more energy efficient, and, on the business side, there is much less cost for the IT director."
Of course he is right. Energy efficiency may not be one of the issues talked about at your typical virtualised system sales pitch, but it is a significant hidden benefit that is likely to get more and more coverage as environmental issues become a wider concern for IT professionals.
I'd be keen to hear any other tips you may have about running an environmentally responsible IT department and look out for the full series of Green IT articles in the 4th of September issue of IT Week.
