There was once a time long long ago when telecommunications andcomputing were two different concepts. That was the age when phonecompany operators manually switched calls and computers like
ENIACwere programmed by patches and cables. Since then the two fields havebeen on a convergence path. The many advances in both fields sincethe 1940's make for exciting reading for computer and telecom fans, butrather than recount those achievements here I'd rather talk about amore modern achievement of note, the establishment of the AdvancedTelecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA or AdvancedTCA).
ATCA is an open standard that has been around since about 2003. It hasbeen continually enhanced and today it is perhaps the most broadlyaccepted standard in the telecom industry, with over 100 companiesparticipating in development and implementation of the specification. Perhaps more important is the adoption of the standard in the telecommunications industry. A review of
wikipedia entries and other open info (like the
Intel Embedded and Communciations Alliance) indicates typical "hockey-stick" implementation seen in other highly reliable, highly virtuous standards.
IDC projects the ATCA market will be about $2.7 billion in size by 2013. I think the global financial crisis and the ongoing wave of mergers and purchases of smaller comms and equipment providers by larger ones will accelerate this trend even faster, as the need for modular low cost, highly relieable standards is needed even more.
Network equipment providers face two challenges that they are addressing with ATCA: 1) the need to continue to deliver new platforms and applications and, 2) the need to reduce costs and improve productivity. ATCA provides a great opportunity to address these needs. ATCA standards provide a common platform which provides lower cost, reduced maintenance, the ability to use third party boards, and the ability to reduce vendor lock-in (more on ATCA capabilities is below).
In my opinion, enterprise CTOs should work to accelerate moving theATCA standard and compliant products into data centers. It results inmore computer power per square inch, higher reliability, power savings,cost savings, long term maintainability, and a path for upgrade thatdoes not require forklifts. ATCA is not something that currently scales down to small network devices, but it is something that I believe will prove to be perfect for data center server support.
Here is more on ATCA:
- Boards (blades) in an ATCA shelf are hot swapable.
- There is not a "bus" for communications in an ATCA shelf. Instead,boards communicate point to point, which is faster and ensures there isnot a single point of failure like in the bus model.
- Any switching fabric can be used.
- Boards can be processors, switches or specially designed advanced cards, if desired.
- The most advanced shelf management capability ever designed is inthe ATCA container. If any sensor reports a problem the shelf managercan take action or report the problem to a system manager. This actioncould be things like turning up a fan or powering off a component ortelling a human that something needs to be replaced before failing.
- It is designed for very high reliability and very high availability.
- It runs cooler, even with its higher powered processors.
- It supports a healthy multi-vendor, interoperable ecosystem.
- It is based on open standards vice proprietary (locked-in) solutions.
Now back to the opening idea of this post. Telecom and data and compute power are not separate things anymore. Each are closely interwoven and successes in one thrust can make a huge positive difference in capabilities in other areas. As organizations and users grow more accustom to the power of cloud computing they will demand higher and higher levels of reliability and resiliency from their server providers. And as service providers provider higher levels of reliability and throughput cloud compute providers will see more and more success which will place increased requirements on their capability. In both cases, ATCA will provide the agility, resiliency and reliability required, which will drive its adoption further and further into the telecon and data worlds.
So, forCTOs who are concerned with maximum performance with power and spaceefficiency and a path to future upgrades, accelerate ATCA into yourenterprise. How? I just typed the words "atca for the datacenter"into Google and got several links worth diving much deeper into,including:
Will ATCA Bring Order Out of Chaos for Blade Servers? Sun Netra CP3220 ATCA Blade Server Link to original post