Recent data center research has shown that cloud traffic will dominate facilities within the next three years. To address these increasing needs, Oracle has grown its global cloud infrastructure with four new data centers.
Boosted Cloud Traffic
According to the third annual Cisco Global Cloud Index, experts predicted that cloud will account for the fastest growing sector of data center traffic, growing 4.5-fold by 2017. The study stated that this will occur through a 35 percent compound annual growth rate between 2012 and 2017 from 1.2 zettabytes of annual cloud traffic in 2012 to 5.3 zettabytes in 2017. Total data center traffic, including cloud and other types, will reach 7.7 zettabytes by 2017.
Of this boosted cloud traffic, 17 percent will be comprised of end users connecting with the cloud for a variety of content. Another 7 percent will come due to traffic generated between data centers, and the remaining 76 percent of cloud traffic will be a result of storage, production and development data within facilities.
Cisco senior vice president Doug Merritt noted that global users continue to demand access to personal, corporate and entertainment material from a variety of mobile devices. This boost in traffic creates cascading effects on the network.
“Because of this continuing trend, we are seeing huge increases in the amount of cloud traffic within, between and beyond data centers over the next four years,” Merritt said.
Furthermore, 2014 will represent the first year when the majority of workloads shift to the cloud. The study forecasted that 51 percent of all workloads will be processed in the cloud this year.
Oracle Expands Cloud Infrastructure
This increase in cloud traffic is creating higher demand in the data center sector, and many organizations have added facilities to meet these growing requirements. Oracle recently announced the addition of four data centers, which brings the company’s service footprint to 17 facilities around the globe.
The new data centers are being constructed in Canada and Germany and are set to come online in the second quarter of this year. The company stated that the new facilities will help support its high performance, reliable and secure cloud infrastructure, providing the power for its portfolio of applications, social, platform and infrastructure services.
Oracle president Mark Hurd said the company’s expansion is a means to further commit to the growing global customer base and address their data residency needs.
“Oracle operates a mission critical cloud, and we understand that cloud services need to deliver more than our already industry leading breadth and depth of cloud service functionality,” Hurd said. “Oracle also delivers on the requirements of enterprise IT, including important corporate and regulatory requirements around data privacy and security.”
