China's cloud computing has great potential but obstacles remain

Cloud computing heat has been very high, but in the face of "eight, each show its ability" technology development and industry preparation, it is difficult to use a very precise definition to explain the meaning of "cloud". Some people describe the ideal of cloud computing: cloud, which makes the whole calculation cheaper, so that the end price of the cloud that everyone owns in the future is equivalent to the price of a book. Behind it is the ability of a supercomputer. Today, one of our supercomputers is millions of dollars, but in the future a terminal will be very diverse and very inexpensive. With just one screen plus some communication tools, users can enjoy the same computing power as supercomputers. So cloud computing is a technological change that makes life easier and cheaper. One of the most important results of the cloud in the future is to make the entire computing environment and knowledge acquisition more affordable. Knowledge can be centralized and, in the case of centralized processing, the so-called data into information, information into wisdom. This process makes the whole production efficiency greatly improved.

Now, global cloud computing has sailed into the fast lane. In recent years, the development of technology and industry preparation, China's cloud computing has also begun to enter a pragmatic track. But China's cloud computing practices are still facing many problems, especially in the specific operational aspects of how to advance, their understanding is different, China's cloud computing in this globalized it computing model to seize the initiative, the need to firmly grasp the application, to apply as a breakthrough point, strengthen industrial collaboration, aggregate more resources, Accelerate the development of industrial pattern to orderly direction. Like cloud computing itself, there are many problems in the development process, such as the priority of private cloud development or public cloud? Are you focusing on security or interoperability in your next planning? These questions will help us to better understand the "cloud", in the face of chaos but the trend of convergence to promote the cloud gradually towards maturity.

In recent years, China's cloud computing industry has begun to enter a substantial stage of development. In the current situation, telecom operators are the users or consumers of cloud computing technology, and they are also seeking to become the provider of cloud computing services. Telecom operators in the IDC has a greater advantage, IDC market share of more than 60%, how to use the advantages of IDC in the cloud computing competition occupies a place, is the focus of telecom operators. At present, China Mobile launched the "Big Cloud", the Chinese telecom has been working with EMC to launch the "E Cloud" online storage services;

Internet enterprises based on the internal potential, hope to broaden business areas. In order to save energy and reduce costs, internet companies themselves have a strong demand for the use of cloud computing technology. At present, Sina, Tencent, Alibaba and other ICP have been or are ready to use private cloud to replace the existing server cluster system to reduce server demand, reduce energy consumption purposes. In addition, Sina, Alibaba and other enterprises are also trying to use their own server resources to provide public cloud services, but at present these efforts are still in the experimental stage. Software companies develop through the concept of cloud computing. In fact, the software industry is already in the direction of SaaS before the concept of cloud computing is put forward. After the concept of cloud computing, there are many software companies to use cloud computing packaging, launched such as "Cloud Antivirus", "cloud computing middleware" and other products.

Although our country cloud computing industry faces the good development opportunity, but also faces many obstacles.

First, cloud computing's key products and technologies rely heavily on foreign manufacturers. At present, the implementation of cloud computing business platform technology and products are mainly controlled and provided by foreign manufacturers, such as VMware's ESX, Ctrix Xen, Microsoft's Hyperv, Google's map-reduce/gfs/bigtable system. Domestic companies want to provide cloud computing enterprises or directly buy foreign manufacturers of products or solutions, or on some open source platform for development, but direct purchase solution can not improve the technology of our industry, and the system based on open source platform is difficult to put into commercial operation or to achieve a larger system size.

Secondly, broadband network construction can not meet the needs of cloud computing business development. According to the report, China's average internet speed is 10 times times more than the average access bandwidth of OECD countries in the same period. Because the broadband network is still not high, the access rate is low, the quality of network connectivity between operators is poor, and regional network development level imbalance and so on, leading users to use high-quality cloud computing business needs can not meet, to a large extent, restricting the current cloud computing in China's development.

Finally, the data center has small scale, high energy consumption and low technical level. Data centers are the basis for building a cloud computing platform. Regardless of the cloud computing business model, there is a need for large-scale, energy-efficient data center support. Google, Amazon, Microsoft and other cloud computing technology and services advanced enterprises at the same time has the world's most advanced data center technology and infrastructure. The development of China's data center, small scale, high energy consumption, low technical level, without their own server resources, only provide racks, room and bandwidth rental and other basic services, distance transformation to become the leading provider of cloud computing platform is far from the requirements.

In addition, the relevant data protection laws and regulations and industry management system is missing. Cloud computing is a public service that needs to be supervised and managed at the legal and policy level. On the legal level, the responsibility and obligation of the service provider should be solved, and the importance of user data and privacy protection should be stipulated in the law. Because cloud computing may result in the Cross-border flow of data, it also brings about the problem of regional law application. At present, many countries and regions in the world are considering whether the original law can be applied to cloud computing services. In contrast, there are still great deficiencies in the law of information security protection, although in 2006, the CPPCC members proposed the enactment of "Information security protection Law", but this legislation has not been started, which is very detrimental to the health of cloud computing services. From a regulatory perspective, the regulation of Internet business in our country is mainly according to the classification catalogue of telecom business, and the related business forms of cloud computing are not clearly embodied in the classification catalogue, which also leads to many companies that want to provide cloud computing services, so they have not been afraid to launch related business. To some extent hindered the development of cloud services.

(Responsible editor: Liu Fen)