Optics for the Cloud – A New Approach to Data Centre Technology

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Dr. Scarlet Schwiderski-Grosche

In this video from PASC 2019, Scarlet Schwiderski-Grosche from Microsoft presents: Optics for the Cloud – A New Approach to Data Centre Technology.

New hardware technology such as rack-scale computers (RSCs) are redefining the landscape of data center computing today, achieving both higher bandwidth and lower latency. As a basic building block of a redesigned stack of hardware, OS, storage and network, such infrastructure is increasingly suitable for HPC workloads. However, most of today’s data center technology was designed or conceived in the era before the cloud existed. Many of the technologies represent compromises, encumbered by legacy thinking. At Microsoft Research Cambridge, we are exploring optical technologies across the three primary resources, networking, storage, and compute. In this talk, we will outline the future challenges in the data center and discuss the limitations of current technology. We will take a holistic end-to-end view of the needs of the cloud and present our work on optical networking and storage.

Dr. Scarlet Schwiderski-Grosche is a Director at Microsoft Research Cambridge. She drives strategic research partnerships with academic institutions in EMEA, including the Swiss Joint Research Center with EPFL and ETH Zurich and the Inria Joint Center. Moreover, Scarlet leads academic outreach around optical storage and networking for Microsoft Optics for the Cloud. Scarlet has ten years’ experience driving collaborations with academia and industry around cutting-edge and highly interdisciplinary research projects and has managed a multitude of academic programs including the EMEA PhD Scholarship Programme and the EMEA PhD Summer Schools.

PASC20 takes place June 29 to July 1, 2020 in Geneva, Switzerland.

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