“3G C-NICs are the latest generation of NICs with 10GbE performance and familiar old RJ45 connectors, supporting Data Center Bridging for converged networks” : Sundararaj Subbarayalu, Partner — Technologies and Founding Team Member, Anantara Solutions

What is the latest that you are doing towards cloud computing in data centers?

Data centers are moving towards virtualization for cloud computing to provide increased storage and bandwidth to support the demand of 3G and VAS, by making data available on the ubiquitous cloud on an elastic bandwidth on demand. Data centers are migrating also from 1 GbE to 10 GbE technology to cater to these demands as it offers a solution to the performance problem. One of the ways to do this is the use of 3G Converged NICs (3G C-NICs). 3G C-NICs are the latest generation of NICs with 10GbE performance and familiar old RJ45 connectors, plus support for Data Center Bridging, a name for the suite of four protocols that form the new, lossless Ethernet underpinning converged networks. Anantara can help in the architecture and migration of existing data center environments to Virtualized Cloud Computing environments to cater to increasing demands.

What scope do you see for cloud computing in data centers for telecommunications companies?

A number of global telecommunications companies are setting up data centers for cloud computing and a number of them already are providing data centers on clouds. Telecommunications companies have a captive audience of customers and existing networks which can be improved upon to provide data centers on the cloud. Further, telecommunications companies will require the usage of data centers on the cloud in the future to cater to the demand of 3G and VAS. So it is definitely a good proposition for telecommunications companies to pursue this route.

Cloud computing will be given a boost with 3G, as linking many more applications and people in a public and private cloud will be possible. How do you foresee 3G helping to boost data centre virtualization in India?

3G and VAS (which so far has been under-utilized from its true potential demand) require the delivery of high quality voice and data which require higher bandwidth and streaming capabilities. The emergence of 3G and VAS will increase the demands from data centers to improve bandwidth and provide increased storage. This will be possible only by data centers upgrading their technology to provide increased storage, archival and retrieval, and bandwidth. Due to this the virtualization of data centers to a cloud will be required. Virtualization of data centers to store data in the ubiquitous cloud and provide the data on an “elastic” bandwidth based on demand is the future which will be further necessitated by 3G.

Security of data with high-speed IT services is the need of the hour for telecommunications companies, and they are willing to partner with any company that can offer the same. With 3G coming into India, how can companies such as you cater to these two above crucial concerns of telecommunications companies, with domestic, localized services?

Security is always a major concern in Cloud Computing implementations. Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) is an organization formed to lay down guiding principles and methodologies for implementation of effective security for Cloud Computing environments. The seven major security risks as identified by CSA are given below:

1) Abuse and Nefarious Use of Cloud Computing
2) Insecure Application Programming Interfaces
3) Malicious Insiders
4) Shared Technology Vulnerabilities
5) Data Loss/Leakage
6) Account, Service, and Traffic Hijacking
7) Unknown Risk Profile

CSA proposes a multi-pronged security strategy encompassing the following 13 domains for effective security in the Cloud Computing environment.

- Architecture
o Domain 1: Cloud Computing Architectural Framework
- Governance
o Domain 2: Governance and Enterprise Risk Management
o Domain 3: Legal and Electronic Discovery
o Domain 4: Compliance and Audit
o Domain 5: Information Lifecycle Management
o Domain 6: Portability and Interoperability
- Operations
o Domain 7: Traditional Security, Business Continuity, and Disaster Recovery
o Domain 8: Data Center Operations
o Domain 9: Incident Response, Notification, and Remediation
o Domain 10: Application Security
o Domain 11: Encryption and Key Management
o Domain 12: Identity and Access Management
o Domain 13: Virtualization

Besides Cloud Security, Anantara provides end to end consulting, technology and implementation services as part of our Cloud Computing offerings

What suggestions do you have to boost data centre productivity in a 3G era, especially for telecommunications companies?

Productivity of data centers by telecommunications companies will depend upon their partnerships with companies to offer the best of content, applications and high quality streaming services on-demand as required by the consumers. Further, sourcing the infrastructure requirements from third-party data centers over the cloud with effective monitoring, auditing and security will enhance the productivity of the data centers. Sharing the infrastructure requirements of cloud consumers through effective compartmentalization is the key to increasing the productivity of data centers for telecommunications companies.

berylm@cybermedia.co.in