THE STORM EFFECT
Cloud computing could play an even bigger role for wireless if it’s pursued as a means of voting in public elections. Elections represent unusual events that would create what David Aviv, vice president of Advanced Services at Radware, describes as a “storm” effect that requires more resources on the part of operators. Operators usually design for average usage models rather than events that require a sudden onslaught of activity, so they might want to tap on-demand resources, including from their peers, for events like voting in elections. Right now, the bottleneck usually is in radio resources and not computing resources, he added.
But it’s early days, he said. As the industry moves away from the walled garden and toward a 4G environment like WiMAX and LTE, the role of cloud computing may change. “I would say that cloud computing probably will play a role in the next generation,” he said, and that may involve new business relationships between operators and content providers.
As time goes on, mobile phones will become more difficult to differentiate, so the phone makers, portals, search engine companies and even carriers will have their own clouds, Steger said. “All the other mobile operators and service providers will have to play this game because if they don’t, they’ll be left behind,” he said.
Full article available in Wireless Week