By Prayson Pate, Chief Technologist, Overture
Cloud technology
has changed how users and developers think about applications. Why buy servers and maintain software if you
can pay per use? Why build applications
from scratch if you can make use of existing frameworks and software? Why configure web servers if all you want to
do is make a simple web page? Developers and users are now empowered to think
about the higher-level applications and services, rather than the underlying
machinery.
So far, this re-thinking has been limited to end-user
applications housed in data centers. The
network connection between the data center and the end user has been left out of
the equation. However, service providers
must find ways to couple high-performance networks with cloud and content
providers in order to participate in current revenue streams. Why have they not yet applied cloud
technology to accomplish this? In short,
the network is complicated, especially at the metro edge.