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distance that’s supported by a multimode fibre tends to decrease. You don’t want to have to rip out the fibre infrastructure every time the data rate increases. Different companies have different philosophies on how they’re supporting these changes.’ For example, Facebook is supporting an
open source approach called the Open Compute Project, to which it contributed a ‘6-pack’ switch that some see as a competitor to Cisco designs. ‘Te Open Compute Project is a move to have a common platform, hardware, electronics, soſtware to simplify data centre equipment,’ said Inniss. ‘It’s like when AT&T would say “We’re going to need this technology to move telecommunications forward”. Tey would start a project, companies would come, and help set specifications and standards. Facebook is creating an environment where a number of suppliers can put layers into the platform. Tey can mix and match options so they can end up with low cost, highly modular solutions. Tey hope that lots of service providers and vendors participate.’ In demanding shorter-distance technology, Internet companies are taking suppliers’
‘ICPs like Microsoſt and Apple are important
Facebook has contributed its ‘modular 6-pack’ switch to the Open Compute Project, an open source data centre initiative
attention away from conventional telecom companies, which Ovum calls communications service providers, or CSPs. Te two groups frequently compete in providing cloud-based services, but likewise they must oſten work together in ways more typical of the broader technology industry. With Internet companies’ revenues growing at a compound annual rate (CAGR) of 10.6 per cent from 2008 to 2013, and set to moderate only slightly, Walker underlines the telcos’ need to co-operate with them.
partners to CSPs in various forms – Microsoſt’s Office 360 for instance is developing a network of partnerships with CSPs to push penetration,’ said Walker. ‘Te tech industry has always had complex relationships among the big players. Te CSP market, until recently, has been more stable and a step removed from this complexity. Te CSPs now have to deal with this more directly, and one adaptation is to get closer to their sometimes-rivals in the ICP camp through partnerships.’ Tis changing balance of power within the
optical industry to increasingly favour Internet companies also means that telecom-focused vendors are slowly becoming an ‘endangered species’, according to Ovum. ‘Increasingly we see vendors like Ciena, Alcatel-Lucent/Nuage Networks, Infinera and BTI designing solutions explicitly focused on the growing Internet content provider segment,’ said Walker. ‘We expect to see more signs of this shiſt this year.’ l
Andy Extance is a freelance science and technology journalist based in Exeter, UK
Formerly FibreSystems Europe
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