Summary
The importance of the network and the implied demand for bandwidth as more and more applications and IT resources sit somewhere remote from the user is good news for operators and equipment makers. If done right, there is a tremendous opportunity for telecoms operators to increase the value of their networks and create new revenue streams. At a minimum, cloud computing is expected to increase the amount of traffic on their networks.
Analysis
The idea of using IT resources on a pay-as-you-go basis rather than buying platforms for in-house use is appealing to companies, especially in the current economic climate. Enterprises are tired of over-provisioning by 150% only for equipment to sit idle and burn power. The top 10 operators in Europe are all adding utility-based offerings such as storage and computing, and are moving to cloud computing by adding management and provisioning on top. However, it is the second and
third-tier operators in Europe that are really going for cloud computing services, as they strive to steal a march on the big carriers.But it is a huge jump from using
cloud computing for application development to an enterprise moving its entire operations into the cloud. For a start-up developing and testing an application, the cost and scalability benefits of cloud are so great that it makes sense. Once an application is running and has users, however, an enterprise is then dependent on the reliability of the connection.
cloud computing for application development to an enterprise moving its entire operations into the cloud. For a start-up developing and testing an application, the cost and scalability benefits of cloud are so great that it makes sense. Once an application is running and has users, however, an enterprise is then dependent on the reliability of the connection.
Service providers stress the need for high-bandwidth, low-latency links to support cloud-based services. Cloud is also having an impact on access network requirements. There is a need to change dynamically the bandwidth per application over a connection to an enterprise. Services such as LAN, video conferencing and data back-up need to be given different priorities at different times of the day, which requires technologies as virtual LAN with quality-of-service and class-of-service settings. Another area that’s being driven by computing over long distances is the need to carry Infiniband natively over a DWDM lightpath. Infiniband is used for computing nodes due to its highest connectivity and lowest latency.
Cloud computing is also starting to influence the evolution of the data centre. One critical enabling technology for cloud computing in the data centre is virtualization, which refers to the ability to separate a software function from the underlying hardware, so that the hardware can be shared between different software usages without the user being aware. Networks, storage systems and server applications can all be “virtualized”, giving end-users a personal view of their applications and resources, regardless of the network, storage or computing device they are physically using.Virtualization enables multiple firms to share the same SaaS application while maintaining their own unique data, compute and storage resources. Virtualization has also led to a significant improvement in the utilization of servers and storage. Traditionally usage levels have been at a paltry 10 to 15%. However, virtualization remains just one of several components needed for cloud computing. A separate management tools layer is also needed to ensure that IT resources are efficiently provisioned,used and charged for. Such management software can also shift applications between platforms to balance loads.
Clearly, shuffling applications between servers and between data centres will drive
bandwidth requirements. It also helps to explain why vendors are exploring how to
consolidate and simplify the switching architecture within the data centre. Lossless Ethernet could be used to carry Fibre Channel packets since the storage protocol’s
key merit is that it does not lose packets. Such a development would remove one of the three main protocols in the data centre, leaving Ethernet to challenge Infiniband.
Equipment makers believe they can benefit from the widespread adoption of cloud computing, at least in the short term. Although there will be efficiencies arising from virtualization and ever more enterprises sharing hardware, this will be eclipsed by the boost that cloud services provide to IT in general, meaning that more datacoms equipment will be sold rather than less. Longer term, however, it will probably impact hardware sales as fewer firms choose to invest in their own IT.Enterprises themselves are considering the adoption of cloud capabilities within their private data centres due to the efficiencies it delivers. The company thus expects to see growth of such “private” as well as “public” cloud enabled data centres.
This author consults with leading institutions through GLG
Analyses are solely the work of the authors and have not been edited or endorsed by GLG.
