But the Big Switch, as Durkee will attest, is starting small.
The big switch to the foundation of the American financial structure at the advent of this period was the U.S. decision in 1971 to go off the gold standard.
Sun's announcement marks the information technology industry's latest step toward "utility computing, " a grid system in which companies pipe in data processing and storage from faraway server farms, says Nicholas Carr, author of The Big Switch, a book on utility computing published earlier this week.
In fact, argues Nicholas Carr, the former editor of the Harvard Business Review and author of the new book The Big Switch, those Web applications are signs of a fundamental change, a shift from the desktop to the Web that could redefine computing--and Google's business model.
In his latest book, tech pundit Nicholas Carr put a name on a trend that's transforming information technology: As the world becomes more networked, he points out, computing power is undergoing "the Big Switch, " moving off of desktops and into massive data centers, where it's cheaper and more efficient.
Amazingly, Notre Dame is the sixth school from the Big East to switch to the ACC in the last decade.
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But while there he learned that in the future the telephone switch would be the big server of data.
The NFL's free agent frenzy began Tuesday, with Mike Wallace, Paul Kruger and Dannell Ellerbe among the big names to switch teams for big paychecks.
As title after title moves to a free-to-play model, the latest big game to make the switch being Team Fortress 2, the pressure is mounting for an old gaming giant to change up their business model a bit.
And so far that's been OK for assistant coach Mike Hopkins, the man in waiting, as the university prepares to switch its affiliation from the Big East to the Atlantic Coast Conference in July.
Now Cisco (nasdaq: CSCO - news - people ), whose name is synonymous with networking, is eyeing that migration to the data center, and working on a big switch of its own--the biggest, in fact, that it has ever produced.
The time has come for the first big step: a switch to a two-child policy.
Just slide the record switch forward and go big.
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Exactly how long it takes for generics to reach the market will be a big factor in whether Forest can convince patients to make the switch.
For twenty years, up until 2001, the big EU agenda was how it could switch out of its crippling agricultural subsidies into high tech innovation.
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Now he develops such profit-seeking wares as the Lambda Router, the world's first big all-optical switch, due later this year.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is said to be considering relaxing rules that make it difficult for a company to switch auditors should one of the Big Four fail.
It's also a big switch from product development: In the past, Mr. Karp has been critical of Internet advertising, even saying that traditional online ads turn his stomach.
The switch was approved in a vote by Big East university presidents in the wake of a split announced last week of the league's football schools and seven other Catholic schools that next season are forming their own basketball-focused conference with the Big East name.
Mets CF Juan Lagares made his big league debut during a double switch in the fifth inning.
The switch to private game ranching would be a big change for everyone.
Sure, we need to switch off the phone and lay off the Big Macs while driving, but we also need to keep our attention tightly focused like a Formula One driver careening around a racecourse at 150 miles per hour.
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"It's regime change, " says Antonis: Whatever happens in parliament, whatever happens with the new austerity budget due to be introduced on 15 June, whatever happens on the streets, he thinks the rash of camps in Greek town squares signals a big switch-off from traditional politics.
Whatever its justification, however, the switch is a boon to a government looking for big economies.
Part of that growth, to be sure, was due to overall growth in demand, but a big part of it I suspect is due to the switch from less fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly unconventional vehicles, to more fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly passenger cars, trucks and buses.
There's no option to switch to the stock ICS keyboard, which is a big disappointment in our eyes.
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In 1953, Operation "Big Switch" was under way as prisoners taken during the Korean conflict were exchanged at Panmunjom.
To get a sense of how big this Big Switch is, Carr points to a similar revolution: the advent of electricity.
The hurdles for electric cars are in the electrical grid currently overloaded, and not ready for a big switch to electric cars and still-developing battery technology.
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While you may think that CIOs in this scenario are doomed to become as dispensable as the light switch they are supposed to keep turned on, Gartner provides a big data escape hatch to a redefined career path.
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