Getting it right: the best network platforms for the cloud

CONNECTIVITY HAS NEVER BEEN more important to day-to-day business operations than it is now. The reason being is simple; cloud computing.

With more and more data being stored online and only accessible via an internet connection, having unreliable or indeed no connectivity is tantamount to not having any data at all. Furthermore, as more and more mission critical operations are hosted in the cloud, not having connectivity is no longer just an inconvenience, it’s potentially damaging to both a business’ finances and reputation.

Consequently, it’s of greater importance than ever that businesses get to grips with the technology behind their network infrastructure; this means keeping tabs on whether their networks are becoming outdated and which new network technologies could better support their cloud operations’ demand for instant and absolute connectivity.

Cloud has resulted in networking requirements becoming more complex as organisations need their networks to be provisioned as quickly as possible in order to support these services. While cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) providers are striving to provide rapid provisioning of infrastructure ‘on demand’ and increased levels of service flexibility, such as consumption-based charging, many telecoms operators are struggling to keep pace with these usage models.

The advent of the cloud and other ‘on demand’ services only serves to highlight the notion that traditional approaches to the network are outdated and now completely out of touch with business needs. Conventional WDM (Wavelength-Division Multiplexing) networks, which most telecoms providers use to connect to data centres, are no longer equipped to deal with the strain incurred by cloud deployments or increased network traffic.

Additionally, long lead times and inflexible contract terms mean that many organisations are bound by their operators’ limited capabilities. Yet as far as many organisations are concerned, the month-long wait to provision new networks or expand capacity still falls under the ‘cost of doing business’ bracket. Surprisingly few are asking why they must wait so long for connectivity, even when it comes to just moving a network from one existing point of presence to another.
However, given the rapid pace in which the IT industry develops, it would suggest that this kind of blinkered vision won’t last much longer. The unique attributes of the cloud computing model has raised business expectations and with it presented an opportunity for new networking technologies to flourish, something that is starting to happen now.
It’s all about the technology
In the cloud computing era, the technology behind the network is more important than ever. An organisation’s network strategy has become the best means for businesses to manage its cloud-based resources and the type of network solution being deployed can be the difference between successful and unsuccessful cloud strategies. There are a raft of options for businesses to consider, it just comes down to picking the right solutions. One type of network seeing increased adoption in the UK market right now is ROADM (Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer) and many consider ROADM networks as ideal for cloud computing.

This new technology represents the next generation of high capacity DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) networks. That said, ROADM networks are altogether different and have the potential to solve the telecoms industry’s cloud computing and data deluge dilemmas. When compared to traditional data centre-to-data centre network set-ups, they offer much improved reliability, scalability and flexibility.
Already widely deployed across the US, ROADM networks are growing inside the UK. It’s a technology likely to garner even greater levels of interest over the next few years too. For customers counting on their cloud service providers to supply incremental capacity at very short notice, these new networks could be a massive benefit. Furthermore, it ensures a rapid, effortless provisioning of new connections with on-demand/just in time deployment. Indeed, for configuration between sites, some network providers are giving lead times of just five working days. To put this into perspective, conventional network deployments will typically have lead times of up to and exceeding 45 or 60 days.
ROADM also means cloud computing customers can provision a protocol agnostic and protocol flexible network with virtually unlimited bandwidth and no charges for protocol changes. Ideal for cloud computing customers looking to increase, decrease or change their networking and data centre operations on the fly, as a result of upgrades or short-term network developments.
ROADM: a platform for the cloud
The quality and availability of the cloud platform is predicated on the existence of geographically diverse data centres. The networks that connect these sites to the end user essentially function as ‘highways’, in this case of a ROADM cloud platform, the ‘highway’ consists of diverse fibre routes and a
high performance ROADM network.

Infrastructure limitations, which are often at the heart of connectivity issues in congested metropolitan areas like London and the South East, are no longer a problem when using a ROADM network. Whilst there can be a lack of available fibre to connect centrally located head office buildings from London-based data centres to out-of-town ‘cloud’ compute centres (and sometimes, more importantly, between such compute centres), ROADM technology maximises the connection potential between these sites.

Assessments of ROADM networks in the USA (where these networks are much more widespread) are already showing customers get higher availability on ROADM networks than on traditional DWDM networks. This is due to provisioning via remote software configuration reducing the risk of inadvertent service disruption during installation.

As the cloud continues to gather speed, becoming the default computing model, so too will agile networking solutions such as ROADM. Business leaders cannot just bury their heads in the sand when it comes to cloud connectivity and unfortunately for some, just choosing a tried and tested approach to the network may not work.

Instead, businesses must evaluate new alternative approaches to
the network, especially those developed with consumption-based
IT models in mind, which offer instant connectivity. There are
solutions like this out there and they are available to any organisation looking to find them.