Cloud Computing Networks

Abstract

Cloud Computing has the potential to trigger a major computing model transformation for the IT industry. This chapter briefly describes the business and technical benefits of Cloud Computing and explains the technical challenges in Cloud Computing, such as the network bottleneck. One of the solutions to address the network problem is the Content Delivery Network (CDN). Here, the basics of the Akamai CDN technology is digested. Then, the authors conduct a CDN experiment in the Microsoft public cloud, Windows Azure, to demonstrate the benefits of CDN integration with the cloud. The results show significant gain in large data download by the utilization of a CDN. Finally, a couple of academic research ideas are summarized for future improvements on the CDN model.