* Don't let grid networking be another missed opportunity for telcos
Our industry is littered with missed opportunities – especially when it comes to the telephone companies. For instance, the lucrative and pervasive “T-1 multiplexer” market of the 1980s never would have developed had the phone companies simply offered automatic alternate routing for these circuits. Lacking this feature, the datacomm shops within the enterprise adopted a BYOB (Be Your Own Bell) attitude, and the phone companies are still struggling to regain a leadership position via “managed services.”
According to a recent article by our colleague, Alan Weissberger, the telcos are in the midst of missing yet another great opportunity – providing support for grid computing.
As grid computing moves from the academic/scientific world to mainstream business, there’s a great opportunity to provide support for this next-generation of distributed computing.
According to Weissberger, there are at least two opportunities that telcos could exploit: the use of grids by the telcos themselves and offering support for these networks. He says, “The critical issue is that telco internal use of grids can greatly improve operations and lower [operational expenses], while a grid network service could be a profitable new market. Having participated in numerous grid computing events and the Grid Computing Forum (GGF) for almost three years now, I am convinced that grids offer huge opportunities for telcos – first as a grid user and later as a grid-networking provider. However, the telcos – especially those in the U.S. – seem to be out to lunch with respect to this huge opportunity. This is especially puzzling, since the grid technology continues to mature, while grid standards evolve and product offerings stabilize.”
What will the enterprise grid user do to interconnect his geographically sites/data centers? Will this come from the telco or will he have to do the job himself? Weissberger continues, “The enterprise grid user must try to match the 1/10G bit/sec Ethernet connections in his data center and campus network with what is available in the metro and wide area networks. Today, most commercial users interconnect grid sites using private lines – often by leasing DS3/E3 or dark fiber – at much lower rates than their campus LAN backbones. But there are limits to connectivity and scalability with this approach and the burden of managing the network is on the enterprise.
“What role will the telcos play in grid networking? The driving factor for a telco grid network service offering will be to effectively use the assets it already owns and to realize a reasonable return on investment.”
Our hope is that by bringing this issue to light in this forum, we will be able to help create market pull for these services. And next time we’ll continue with more of Weissberger’s comments, tying them back to some of our own recent observations.
