AT&T Research – Extending the boundaries of traditional cloud
Tue 27 May 2014
I’m Cloud 2.0, and I’m Not Just a Data Center
Look beyond the Marketing-inspired use of the slightly misleading Cloud 2.0 label; this is an interesting look at how the cloud might be able to use the plethora of computing power that we increasingly have close to home.
Author Emiliano Miluzzo from AT&T Labs Research is not talking about replacing the cloud or even particularly a next generation, more the evolution of a complementary approach.
He says that despite its distributed nature, the cloud remains a remote entity, accepting requests from clients and accomplishing tasks in return – including storing and processing data. But, he says, with the proliferation of powerful devices such as smartphones, connected cars, set top boxes etc there are abundant resources much closer to the users could be brought into the equation by extending the boundaries of the traditional cloud computing ecosystem.
He says these local devices are often under-utilised while actually they are capable of embracing some of the compute and storage jobs that currently require constant cloud involvement.
Possible advantages of this local processing include reduced latency, higher quality of service. Edge devices in personal data storage could increase data privacy, allow for faster storage and retireval, and reduce cost.
In his PDF article he explores some of the possible applications and alternatives – click here to read the full article.
