Years ago, somebody worked out the number of computer cycles per capita, and lo and behold, Calgary ranked in the top three cities in the world (along with Houston and London.)
That was in the days when computers were huge mainframes that cost millions of dollars and you could actually count them. Today, there are arguably more computers than people in most energy industry offices, certainly if you include the ones that do that intensive geophysical processing that elevates good guesswork to a sort of science.
“Oil and gas companies are embracing any new technologies that make sense,” says Cyrille Armand, vice-president, professional services, for Metafore. His company works with a range of clients, doing what they like to call “selective outsourcing.”
The energy industry is a hotbed of SOLARIS use, he adds. SOLARIS is the Sun Microsystems dialect of UNIX, that quirky but powerful operating system that appeals to techies, hackers and wizards.
The University of Calgary’s computer science department can probably take some of the credit for the local strength of this system. For years, advanced students have worked on Sun computers, so when they graduate, the words “Sun” and “SOLARIS” just trip off their tongues.
On a deeper level, UNIX gives companies the ability to manage esoteric hardware such as pipeline control equipment, it can be beefed up in the security area and it runs on many different kinds of computers.
Another big trend is the move towards Citrix. This interesting product allows you to turn any Internet-connected computer into a remote and reasonably secure version of your desktop application. Many energy companies have “legacy applications” that date from the 1990s, ’80s, and even the ’70s.
Sure, it may be time to rewrite them, but if they’re not broken why fix them? Citrix provides a convenient way to “Internet-enable them,” says Armand. “The time to deploy to the desktop is instantaneous, it gives a solid system and the low bandwidth requirement is a real plus.”
The next step beyond a Citrix portal approach is true server-based computing, where applications run concurrently on a number of different machines.
In the ultimate case, the users don’t know or care where their data is located, or where their programs are. If they can get to the Internet, they can do their jobs.
This ties in with an interesting concept called “infiniband,” short for infinite bandwidth. The idea is to have a bunch of processors, storage devices, etc. connected by such fast cables that they may as well be part of the same machine. We’re talking about distances like 20 meters so this is not a “wide area” network solution, but it does look interesting. Specifications for this have been written up, and there’s even a trade association for infiniband. (See Web watch, below.)
What about software written specifically for the oil and gas industry? The local giant here is QByte, now part of PriceWaterhouseCoopers. It claims a 70-per-cent market penetration in Canada. QByte offers applications for financial, production and land management as well as an evolving online offering. Account executive Michael Danielewicz, speaking to QByte’s annual user’s conference, outlined the need for an evolutionary IT strategy. He demonstrated QByte’s online products, which are run as an ASP (application service provider.) People with long memories might remember when we called shops like that “service bureaus.”
The difference was that you used to have to go somewhere and pick up your printout from a box.
Oilpatch legend holds that many highly confidential printouts were placed in the wrong box, but the industry’s honour code demanded that you return them unopened. (Of course, you might expect a bottle of good Scotch as a reward for your honesty.)
In September, QByte introduced a nifty product called Petro-Lab, which is a kind of Internet browser. Aimed at geologists, geophysicists, landpeople, engineers and accountants, it lets users ask questions in a geographically based way.
PetroLab links up to the products of other companies like Merak’s PetroDesk and Veritas Gold. Of course, they’d like you to make it your one-stop shop for information . . . for a fee.
There are other industry portals vying for your attention, such as Rigzone.com, Oilonline.com and Naturalgas.com
If all this information is starting to overload you, then you might consider looking at some oil and gas industry humour in the online version of The Roughneck. If that doesn’t cheer you up, it’s probably time to post your online resume on a site like oilcareer.com
Web Watch:
www.metafore.ca www.qbyte.com www.infinibandta.org/ www.northernstar.ab.ca/roughneck.jokes.html www.oilcareer.com
