The Secret of China Unicom "Wayun": four basic projects to assist the first to

Cloud computing can be seen as such a technology, in addition to Google and Amazon and several big application-oriented players, in a number of specific implementation technology, Silicon Valley, a large number of small and medium-sized it technology companies play a big role, which also caused the current IT field of mergers and acquisitions wave. Specifically to the domestic market, we are in fact very lack of this technology micro-innovation ability. To obtain the development and Reform Commission 1.5 billion yuan special funds funded enterprises, for example, they are generally oriented to application services, technology-oriented manufacturers, underlying basic technology is still missing.

However, in other words, the nature of cloud computing is also how to better the deployment of social resources, to make the best possible. Specific to the cloud technology itself, but also distributed computing, Grid computing, resource scheduling, virtualization and other traditional technologies to integrate, and finally delivered to the user through the network. With the development of cloud computing and the expansion of user groups, the delivery system will become the key to its development.

This is where our protagonists come in, the telecom operators who have a wealth of basic network resources. They are China Telecom, China Unicom (600050, shares) and the Chinese mobile. In addition to building a "public cloud" based on its own network for end-user-oriented delivery, the three companies also have a huge IT infrastructure to support their billions of users, the "private cloud" we speak of.

In the area of cloud computing, the three operators were not disappointed. The most high-profile move in China, which launched the big cloud plan two years ago, is absolutely small, and China Telecom has also released a "Wing Cloud", but more public-sector/government-owned cloud services. China Unicom has been relatively low-key, from the current action is not very much a system: including 10 provinces and cities operating system virtual desktop, Hebei and other provincial operational support System cloud transformation, as well as traditional IDC virtualization improved VDC.

In today's occasion, C114 China Communications Network editor had the honor to listen to China Unicom Group deputy general Manager Zhang Juan, Information Department general manager Liubo, Research Institute deputy Dean Fang, System integration company deputy General Manager Gao Wenrong and several directly related Personage's report. From this, we can also see China Unicom's overall thinking about cloud computing: In the next three years, phased smooth implementation, focus on standardization, interoperability and controllability; Establish an efficient IT operations support platform internally, build a VDC based on cloud computing technology, and build a business based cloud service and capability open platform At the same time, we must continuously enhance the Security Service guarantee ability, carry on the intelligent pipeline construction, enhances the physical network the value, in the application, unifies the cloud computing and the IoT, and carries on the deep coupling with the different professions.

Overall Architecture: Cloud Systems + cloud services

As the think-tank of China Unicom, Fang, deputy dean of China Unicom Research Institute, has a very strong representative opinion. "Cloud computing provides a chance for telecoms operators to combine" open source "with" throttling ". More than 60% of operators believe cloud computing will significantly increase connectivity, application, and basic resource services. ”

The overall architecture of China Unicom's cloud computing in Fang's eyes can be divided into cloud system and cloud service system. Cloud system is mainly for China Unicom internal IT support system, that is, the information system, while the cloud services are mainly China Unicom to the enterprise/Government, such as the provision of public cloud services. "In order to get a wide range of applications, cloud computing must address the issues of innovation, scale, service security and safety control." ”

Public and private, but its core technology is convergence, such as green Data center technology, virtualization technology, distributed data storage computing, artificial intelligence, automatic resource matching. "China Unicom will be guided by the concept of improving management, reducing efficiency, supporting innovation and focusing on growth, to systematically carry out research and deployment of" Wayun "cloud computing technology. ”

From the overall service framework, China Unicom's "Wayun" and cloud computing classic structure is consistent, can also be divided into infrastructure, platform services and application services three levels. To achieve this goal, China Unicom also began the data center, it centralization, data unification and application migration of the four major projects. "China Unicom will adopt independent research and development and industrial cooperation model to achieve the four major projects." ”

In particular, it is necessary to point out the application of migration engineering. China Unicom, both internally and externally, has a huge stock of assets. "Cloud computing is not a destructive innovation project, the technology architecture of cloud computing should be adopted for new systems, and the original application should be migrated from the needs of the business unit." ”

Cloud system: Centralized, efficient, controllable

China Unicom has close to 400 million users, thousands of kinds of personalized applications, how to serve so many users, to ensure their service experience, which is puzzling the informatization Department of the problem. A large concentration of data may be a challenge to a certain degree of transition.

"Last year, we had a big discussion inside, whether we should take the centralized path and how to take the centralized path." "Liubo told C114 editor," A lot of people at the beginning are not optimistic, there are many questions, but now the voice of criticism is much less. ”

In fact, it is not difficult to understand the question. The benefits of a large data set are obvious, but the difficulty is concentrating. The banking industry is a model of large data centralization, but the application characteristics and banking in the telecom sector are significantly different, so it is more difficult to focus on the "Cross region, cross product and service".

In Liubo's view, China Unicom's data centralization is facing five challenges: the capacity of centralized systems under large users, how to quickly respond to market changes, the reliability of business operations, the support of personalized business, and the operation and maintenance system in a centralized environment. "The key is handling power and reliability issues, which is the key to our choice of cloud computing technology." In terms of reliability, it is also necessary to consider the choice of the three centres or regional centres, that is, the regional centres also have hundreds of millions of users, or face the problem of handling capacity. ”

"We have to build an information system, more from the cost point of view, but now we have to consider the external market environment needs, to achieve rapid response to the business." "The system must be agile, low-cost and manageable," Liubo. At the same time, Liubo also deliberately stressed the operator of the information construction of the leading ability, and ultimately to achieve business diversity and product service consistency of the dialectical unity.

Cloud services: Building a regional cloud computing center

As the second largest IDC service provider, China Unicom has been suffering from all aspects of competition. The first is the business model from the IDC business itself, under the traditional business model, China Unicom to the user rental physical basic resources or bandwidth resources, that is, earn a hard money, followed by fierce market competition, whether it is China Telecom or similar to the century interconnection of neutral third parties, Are beginning to emphasize the intense competition for the refinement of the data center management operations.

China Unicom should look for a differentiated road, the green energy-saving, virtualization, automatic service and resource scheduling technology, into the traditional data center, the formation of a VDC service structure, become the choice of Unicom. VDC can integrate distributed hardware into a virtual high-performance resource pool through cloud technology to achieve unified management and on-demand. can provide users with centralized, flexible, high reliability of computing and storage, such as resource rental services, to meet user information, the Internet and other business costs, rapid delivery and on-demand leasing needs.

VDC can effectively integrate and innovate the service system of IDC business, improve the overall revenue ability of IDC, realize the energy saving and emission reduction of the traditional IDC room, enhance the resource yield per square metre, unify the dispatching resources, balance the high and low end IDC room and the business development of the remote area, enhance the information service capability Further meet the future mobile Internet, IoT and other development needs.

According to Gao Wenrong, deputy general manager of China Unicom system integration Company, China Unicom VDC can be applied to government, industry and Enterprise respectively in the service type, and also from the original basic resources to the PAAs platform service provider and cloud host, etc. in the point deployment, China Unicom will take the form of a large area, Build six cloud computing data centers and build cloud storage disaster center.

According to his introduction, China Unicom's VDC business will soon be commercial, we also sincerely look forward to this day early arrival, but also wish China Unicom to achieve a first-come.