Technoglitch
Core Member
GOOGLE RUNS ONE of the largest computer networks on Earth, a web of machines that extends from Oregon to Finland to Taiwan. This is how it delivers so many Internet services to so many people in so many countries so quickly, from Google Search to Google Maps to YouTube. The irony is that Google built this vast network without much help from companies like Cisco, Dell, HP, and IBM—companies that supply the hardware for most of the world’s computer networks. Google, you see, designs its own hardware.
It has to. Over the past 15 years, Google’s network grew so large that the company needed a cheaper, more efficient way of building it. Traditional gear from traditional suppliers was too expensive, overly elaborate, and difficult to manage. So Google designed its own gear, working with various firms in Asia and elsewhere to manufacture a more streamlined breed of hardware, including computer servers and the networking switches that send data between servers. Most notably, Google built switches that could run its own software—software it could readily reprogram to suit its needs. This wasn’t possible with traditional gear.
Now, a new wave of companies aims to push this movement even further. This morning, four big-name telecoms— AT&T, Verizon, Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, and South Korea’s SK Telecom—agreed to join the Open Compute Project. Through a sub-project dedicated to the needs of telecoms, they too will explore open source servers and networking equipment that can boost efficiency and reduce costs. “Everyone is looking for that same synergy and agility,” Gagan Puranik, a director of architecture planning at Verizon, says of his company and others who have joined Facebook’s experiment in open source hardware. “The learning and the sharing will go both ways.”
Telecoms Look Past Cisco and HP to Open Source Hardware | WIRED
It has to. Over the past 15 years, Google’s network grew so large that the company needed a cheaper, more efficient way of building it. Traditional gear from traditional suppliers was too expensive, overly elaborate, and difficult to manage. So Google designed its own gear, working with various firms in Asia and elsewhere to manufacture a more streamlined breed of hardware, including computer servers and the networking switches that send data between servers. Most notably, Google built switches that could run its own software—software it could readily reprogram to suit its needs. This wasn’t possible with traditional gear.
Now, a new wave of companies aims to push this movement even further. This morning, four big-name telecoms— AT&T, Verizon, Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, and South Korea’s SK Telecom—agreed to join the Open Compute Project. Through a sub-project dedicated to the needs of telecoms, they too will explore open source servers and networking equipment that can boost efficiency and reduce costs. “Everyone is looking for that same synergy and agility,” Gagan Puranik, a director of architecture planning at Verizon, says of his company and others who have joined Facebook’s experiment in open source hardware. “The learning and the sharing will go both ways.”
Telecoms Look Past Cisco and HP to Open Source Hardware | WIRED
