Cloud is the fastest growing component of data center traffic,
which itself will grow 4-fold at a 33 percent CAGR to reach 4.8
zettabytes annually by 2015, says a study by Cisco. Excerpts from
the Cisco Global Cloud Index reveal that the cloud is also
estimated today to be 11 percent of data center traffic, growing to
more than 33 percent of the total by 2015.
The Cisco Global Cloud Index (2010 – 2015) was developed
to estimate global data center and cloud-based Internet Protocol
traffic growth and trends. As the network and data center are
becoming intrinsically linked in the delivery of cloud services,
this study complements existing network traffic studies to provide
new insights and visibility into the emerging trends affecting data
center and cloud architectures.
The vast majority of the data center traffic is not caused by
end users but by the data centers and clouds themselves undertaking
activities that are largely transparent to end users – like
backup and replication. By 2015, 76 percent of data center traffic
will remain within the data center itself as workloads migrate
between various virtual machines and background tasks take place,
17 percent of the total traffic leaves the data center to be
delivered to the end user, while an additional 7 percent of total
traffic is generated between data centers through activities such
as cloud-bursting, data replication and updates.
Highlights
Cloud will account for one-third of total data center
traffic - Globally, cloud traffic will grow from just 11
percent (11 exabytes per month and 130 exabytes annually) of total
data center traffic in 2010 to more than a third of total data
center traffic (34 percent specifically--137 exabytes per month and
1.6 zettabytes annually) by 2015.
Global cloud traffic growing twice as fast as global
data center traffic - The transition to cloud services is
driving global cloud traffic at a growth rate that is twice as
great as global data center traffic. Global data center traffic
will grow fourfold (a 33 percent CAGR) from 2010 to 2015, while
global cloud traffic will grow 12-fold (a 66 percent CAGR) over the
same period.
Global data center traffic growth: a four-fold increase
by 2015 - Data center traffic is forecast to more than
quadruple from 1.1 zettabytes in 2010 to 4.8 zettabytes annually in
2015, representing a 33 percent CAGR.
Most data center traffic stays within the data center
itself - Of the data center traffic in 2015, 76 percent
stays within the data center itself, through such activities as
storage and authentication across virtual machines. 17 percent is
data-center traffic being delivered to end users, while 7 percent
is generated between data centers through activities such as backup
and replication.
Peak end-user activity more than 2.5 times average in
2015 – Due to the rise in video-based consumer
services, data-center-to-user traffic has some significant peaks in
activity. Much like prime time viewing hours, average amount of
data center traffic per hour during peak periods is expected to
rise up to 2.5 times, requiring the need to plan for additional
capacity from data centers and the cloud as well as from the
network. The on-demand model of cloud is perfectly suited to serve
this type of variable demand.
Workload transition - In 2010, 21 percent of
workloads were processed in a cloud-based data center with 79
percent being handled in a traditional data center. 2014 is
the first year where the balance of workloads shifts toward the
cloud for the first time – 51 percent of total workloads will
be in a cloud environment versus 49 percent in the traditional IT
space. Overall, the data center workload from 2010 – 2015 is
growing 2.7-fold; however, the cloud workload from 2010 –
2015 is growing more than 7-fold over the forecast period.
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