Leveraging Web-scale Principles for  Efficiency of Networks

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The web-scale effect that is transforming data centers and IT is now being applied to WAN networks so they can support applications that require expansive bandwidth, efficiency and agility.Traditionally hardware-dominated networks are inflexible and unable to scale to meet the pace of demand, making them redundant in the cloud era. Service providers are increasingly realizing that the adoption of web-scale network strategies will enable them to deliver scalable and inexpensiveservices to their customers.

In a an interview will CIOL, Ryan Perera, India country head, Ciena, explains the concept of web-scale and how it is revolutionizing the way networks are designed and managed.

Edited Excerpts

What exactly do you mean by Web-scale?

Traditionally, data centers have relied on complex, inflexible, and expensive computing and storage platforms. Realizing the problems in the old data centers, big names in cloud computing like Google, Amazon, Netflix and Facebook decided to do away with proprietary solutions. They developed their own software-defined infrastructures, which were not only flexible but also scalable and were hosted on inexpensive hardware. This also led to revamp of their IT processes and operations to achieve the required agility. These changes enabled them to build IT platforms and to deliver on-demand computing and storage to users across the world.

A direct impact of this was the rapid adoption of the cloud which has significantly changed the way these services are delivered and consumed. While earlier the providers could easily predict the demand and plan accordingly this is no longer the case. So now we need networks to deal with web-scale companies.

How did big cloud computing firms achieve high service delivery level?

In simplistic terms, these players have evolved the architecture of their network to be more real-time and on-demand. Major cloud computing firms have focused networks on two functions: one which interconnects their data centers and second which connects users to that content. Both aspects of the network need to adopt open networking concepts to incorporate elements of flexibility and interoperability. This makes them more controllable, scalableand agile.

The new approach will become a standard in the long run. The big cloud-computing giants are effectively driving a shift in how networks a65re designed and built. The networks must be able to scale massive numbers of connections and to massive capacity. So the premise of web-scale network is that it should be scalable, fast and agile.

This is driving significant changes in network architectures that seek to leverage the inherent dynamics in web-scale networks: virtualization, openness, integration, automation and massive scale.The service providers and enterprises would do well to adopt these principles now to offer cutting-edge services to their consumers.

How can networks adopt the principles of web-scale IT? How can it help them to be more efficient?

Earlier the service providers could easily predict the demand in a given time frame. In this scenario it was easy to design networks using the provision and monitor strategy. This model is simply incapable of dealing with the reality of data explosion.

However, technology advancements like network architectures utilizing open principles allow network operators to scale in both size and programmability based on unexpected demands. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are the desired model for communicating with networking equipment and web-scale drives the network to becoming a programmable platform that can be orchestrated and controlled in real-time rather than just a bunch of provisioned static pipes.

Web-scale principles are integral to the philosophy behind Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), which enables service providers and enterprises to meet the demands of agile bandwidth and service consumption. At Ciena, through our innovative solutions, we are empowering the service providers to leverage the advantages of web-scale IT to transform their networks.

By applying web-scale philosophies, the network can scale to massive numbers of connections and to massive capacity – in real-time. The network will be more agile, programmable and reconfigurable in all dimensions.

This is the right approach to deal with the shift in data and bandwidth consumption. It is also a cost-effective and timesaving strategy to scale the network to meet the variable demands of the customers.