Where Big Data and optical networks intersect

Cablinginstall.com's sister site Lightwave has published an illuminating guest blog by Jim Theodoras of ADVA Optical Networking:

Optical networks and the era of Big Data
By Jim Theodoras, ADVA Optical Networking

With the coming of the era of “Big Data,” we are faced with the latest in a long line of buzzwords. Big Data refers to the mining of huge data sets to gather new insights and trends that have never before been identifiable by other means.

In the past, scientists did deep dives into dusty records in musty basements, attempting to prove or disprove a thesis that may or may not have led to fame. Today scientists can sift through vast amounts of data in real time and identify trends as they are occurring. An example frequently sited is Google’s flu map that is able to identify flu levels across a country before the cases are even reported, simply by looking at people’s Internet search patterns.

At first glance, Big Data might seem to have little to nothing to do with optical communications. Yet, let’s look at one of the more recent analogs, the “cloud.” The cloud referred to the moving of services from local resources to hosted resources that could reside physically anywhere on the globe. When the cloud was mentioned in the same breath as optical communications, it seemed somewhat of a reach. Yet, fast forward to today and the growth in the cloud is arguably the biggest driver in continued growth in optical. I would go as far as saying it has become optical’s most recent savior, for just when it seemed our industry was doomed to follow the slow and steady growth of telecommunication network upgrades, along came the cloud.

Now it’s all about Big Data. So what does that have to do with the plumbing of the network? It turns out, more than one would think.

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As databases have outgrown the confines of their data centers, they have become truly global in nature. No longer is data hosted locally and simply backed up overnight. Data and computations on that data are now constantly being replicated and load balanced across global networks of data centers. Virtual machines are moved as needed in real time across huge geographical distances. In this context, I would argue that the traditional WAN has become somewhat a misnomer, as wide area networks are no longer relegated to merely areas and may be as wide as the globe.

The cloud stores everyone’s cold, hard data like a big hard drive in the sky. And now, Big Data will store all the warm and fuzzy relationships between those data sets, a kind of social media for bits and bytes.

Transport networks for big data transport have some unique needs versus their predecessors. They must be efficient, as space, power, and money are forever in short supply when storing all of mankind’s knowledgebase. Scalability also is important, as some content providers have technology replacement/upgrade cycles as short as 3 years. Big Data is also big money, and given the value inherent in the data itself, all data must be secured as it is shuttled from site to site.

It turns out Big Data needs big networks. All of which bodes well for our optical industry.

Jim Theodoras is senior director of technical marketing at ADVA Optical Networking

Related Lightwave coverage:  The security of networks and the role optical can play in it

Cabling Africa's remote interior

As reported at The Economist, a mobile-telecoms cabling firm with roots in Zimbabwe has, with remarkable tenaciousness, brought fast broadband to landlocked parts of Africa -- "the continent that [network] infrastructure forgot."

"It had taken two years to negotiate the various permits required for Liquid Telecom to take its cable across the Limpopo from South Africa to Zimbabwe," says the Economist report. "A further 18 months of talks for permission to run the cable along one of the two bridges at Chirundu had come to nought. The network in Zambia was ready to be switched on. Then someone suggested suspending the cable between two disused electricity pylons on either side of the river, which would not require any special permits. The cable was strung across the Zambezi but was almost washed away by its powerful current. And then the rigger hired to clamp the cable to both pylons came across a beehive at the top of one of them."

"Even the hardiest of riggers would struggle to fix a cable to a tall pylon while being stung by a swarm of African bees. Happily the intrepid cablers were able to improvise a beekeeper’s outfit from four Thomas Pink shirts (taken from the boss’s suitcase), a pair of overalls, some insulating tape and a mosquito net expensively acquired from a trucker queuing at the nearby border post."

"A fainthearted firm might have given up. But Liquid has doggedness in its genes. It is a sister company of Econet Wireless, Zimbabwe’s biggest mobile-telecoms firm, which in 1998 won a five-year legal battle with Robert Mugabe’s government to be allowed to operate."

See also:  Philippines' city councilor: No more 'messy' cabling