In the past several decades, technologies have evolved almost immeasurably, certainly including the development of data storage. Humankind has always tried to find ways to store information. People have become accustomed to technological terminology, such as CD-ROM, USB Key, and DVD. But today, the most advanced storage solution may be the cloud computing. About how to achieve the “cloud”, some people say that optical fiber is the key to cloud computing. So, what is cloud computing and why do we need optical fiber to get there? Today, we are going to the “Cloud” and find the out answer.

What is Cloud Computing and Why is it Called as “Cloud”?

Though the term “cloud computing” is everywhere and closely linked with our life, we do not really know what it is just like many terminologies that we don’t know. However, unlike other terminologies, we are more interested in cloud computing because of its attractive features, applications or maybe the interesting name. Why is it called as “cloud” but not “rain” or “snow”? The most simple explanation is that we usually use “cloud” to represent the network. “Cloud” the term describes an image of the complex infrastructure, which cover all the technical details. Obviously, the cloud computing has nothing to do with the weather “cloud”. It is just an analogy to give it a body to imagine. In fact, cloud computing is a model for computing transforming. In this model, data and computation are operated somewhere in a “cloud”, which is some collection of data centers owned and maintained by a third party. This enables ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.

There are public cloud, private public and hybrid cloud. When a cloud is made available in a pay-as-you-go manner to the general public, we call it a public cloud. And when the cloud infrastructure is operated solely for a business or an organization, it is called private cloud. A composition of public and private cloud is called hybrid cloud. A hybrid cloud integrates the advantages of public cloud and private cloud, where private cloud is able to maintain high service availability by scaling up their system with externally provisioned resources from a public cloud when there are rapid workload fluctuations or hardware failures.

Generally, cloud computing may be considered to include the following layers of service: IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service).

• IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) – Offering web-based access to storage and computing power. Consumer can get service from a full computer infrastructure through the Internet.  IaaS Examples: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Compute Engine (GCE), Joyent.
• PaaS (Platform as a Service) – Giving developers the tools to build and host web applications.  PaaS Examples: Apprend, Microsoft Azure.
• SaaS (Software as a Service) – Applications that are accessible from various client devices through a thin client interface such as a web browser. SaaS Examples: Google Apps, Salesforce, Workday, Concur, Citrix GoToMeeting, Cisco WebEx.

Optical Fiber Is the Key to the “Cloud”

The implementation of cloud computing depends on high bandwidth. If without an enough bandwidth, cloud computing is impossible. In the “cloud”, users’ terminals are simplified into a pure and single device with only input and output functions but meanwhile utilize the powerful computing and processing functions from the “cloud”. This means that the terminal must have a very fast connection, because the simple terminal means fast network and powerful platform requirement, where “pipes” are put forward higher requirement. Thus, fiber is the ideal “pipe” for cloud computing.

In fact, increasingly more computer applications, software and even file storage now reside on the Internet or in the “cloud”. Yet another driving force is mobile Internet traffic, which relies heavily on cloud computing. It is said that there is over 1 Exabyte (i.e. 1,073,741,824 Gigabytes) of data currently stored in the cloud. And this number is growing exponentially every day. The greatest thing that will limit your ability to work seemlessly in the “cloud” is your Internet connection. Thus, to access the tremendous amounts data we need fiber networks that can carry Terabits—one trillion bits per second. Optical fiber can offer more available bandwidth and speed which meets the demands of the “cloud”. Obviously, no technology is more effective at meeting that challenge than fiber at present.

FTTH and Cloud Computing

When talking about optical fiber, FTTH (Fiber to the Home) may be the hot topic. FTTH infrastructure is expected as a solution to the growing demands for high bandwidth. It brings fiber-optic connections directly into homes, allowing for delivery speeds up to a possible 100 Mbps, or even more. These speeds open the door to a variety of new services and applications for residential, business and public service markets. The relationship between FTTH and cloud computing is subtle. FTTH which will encourage growth in cloud computing with its benefits. And the growth of cloud computing may drive the development of FTTH.

The Future

Cloud computing is seen by many as the next generation of information technology. The abundant supply of information technology capabilities offers many benefits to our lives. However, like any new technology advancement, cloud computing also faces many challenges, e.g. cloud security. Though there are many unknown factors in the “cloud” waiting for us to explore, it is no doubt that we need optical fibers in order to better reach the “cloud”. Now, with the benefits of optical fibers, the cloud computing is increasingly developing. Will it automatically work out better and cheaper for you in the long term? What’s your opinion?

Where does fiber-optic have a role on Cloud Computing?

Being an Internet-based server layer, cloud computing productivity solutions efficient performance depends on your Internet connection. Without enough bandwidth, cloud computing would be impossible. With more than 1 Exabyte of data stored in the cloud, connections need to be high-speed, reliable and trustworthy in order to allow computers resources to be easily distributed. Therefore, optical fiber will be persistent in the new network architectures as bandwidth requirements increase.

Currently, there is no technology more effective for meeting data increasing demands than fiber optics, because it is the only practical telecommunication medium able to carry trillions of bits per second. When migrating to cloud computing infrastructure, businesses need to ensure their Internet connection can keep up, by finding a right commercial ISP that’s able to deliver the type of  fiber WAN that is suited for this architecture.On the other hand, data centers need to meet these challenging data increasing requirements by using advanced fiber optic cabling in core network functions, backhaul systems, and storage arrays, which delivers reliability and scalability without giving up density. And, also, by choosing proper media conversion tools that enable them to freely change between fiber and copper.

Following is a list of challenges that optical network need to face in cloud computing era:

1.Enable ubiquitous access to huge bandwidth: Nowadays, the users or applications that require the bandwidth of more than 1 Gbps are very common, especially with a growing tendency towards applications requiring a 10 Gbps or even 100 Gbps connectivity. Examples including networked data storage, high-definition (HD) and ultra-HD multimedia-content distribution, large remote instrumentation applications are quite close to our daily life. But today, these applications cannot use the Internet because of the fair-sharing principle and the basic routing approach. As TCP, referred to as the one-size-fits-all protocol, has reached its limits in controlling, which cannot enable ubiquitous access to huge bandwidth. So we need a new mechanisms to improve its flexibility.

2.Coordinate IT and network service provisioning: Cloud computing carries large amount of dynamical resources which are based on well network controlling. it is important to have control over the quality of the network connections used, which is a challenge in today’s best-effort Internet. The interconnection of IT resources over networks requires well-managed, dynamically invoked, consistent services. IT and network should be provisioned in a coordinated way in the future Internet.

3.Deal with the unpredictability and burstiness of traffic: Application of cloud computing raise unexpected traffic and emergence in network. It need a brand new system to support the dynamic behavior of the services and applications. Additionally, another important issue is that the growth of content and applications on the Internet will be more and more sporadic. Therefore, the future Internet should be able to deal with sporadic, seasonal or unpredictable demands.

4.Make the network energy-aware: It is reported that ICT (Information and Communication Technology) is responsible for around 4 % of the worldwide energy consumption today, and this percentage is expected to rapidly grow over the next few years following the growth of the Internet. Therefore, overall energy consumption should be considered as a significant factor when build our network. And a energy-saving and sustainable network is one direction in future development.

Although there are many problems in the way, the future must be promising after all these problems are solved.