Handling the load

The Internet's available bandwidth is sometimes just barely enough to sustain the load we're imposing on it. Who's the culprit? The Web, of course, with all its bandwidth devouring technologies. Solving the Web's load problems is no simple task. However, given the speed at which Web sites are adopting bandwidth hungry technology, we can expect serious trouble on the Internet within a few years. This trouble may disappear temporarily with the start-up of projects like Internet 2, whose aim is to greatly increase the Internet's overall bandwidth. But computer technology fills bandwidth like a gas fills a room, taking up as much space as its given. Making greater bandwidth available will most likely spark the creation of more bandwidth hungry technology until the load is once again unbearable. In the end, one important principle remains: decentralization. The load, whatever it is, must be split intelligently between the clients and servers, utilizing bandwidth in an efficient manner. After all, decentralization is the principle on which the Web was built.