Infrastructure is key to reaping rewards of big data

bealtine

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/digital-21/item/26393-dif12-infrastructure-is

reland must invest in the next generation of digital infrastructure to enable the country to steal a march and sustain its present edge in the emerging big data world, the CEO of Sea Fibre Networks Diane Hodnett told the Digital Ireland Forum on Friday.

Hodnett was the driving force behind the deployment of the CeltixConnect fibre gateway that landed at Porth Darfarch in Wales on 1 February. The 144-fibre network rolled out by Sea Fibre Networks - connecting the financial centres of Dublin, Manchester and London is aiming to be a game changer, more than doubling the existing data capacity between Ireland and the UK and helping to support the online media explosion.

At the forum Hodnett said that data is the new oil and as with oil the myriad of applications for data and mining and analysing could be huge for Ireland.
She said that the large community of global ICT firms from Microsoft and Oracle right up to high growth social networks like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook not only need this infrastructure but also services to support what we do.

“What we need to understand in relation to the community is what kind of services can we build around the big data providers - we have Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook - we need infrastructure to support big data and just to be able to analyse it.

“You need infrastructure in relation to connectivity so that you can get content on or off the island," she said.
Open access to government

Hodnett said the present government "right up to minister level" is much more open to understanding the opportunities of the digital age than the previous administration.

She said that in previous years paving the way for CeltixConnect and explaining the need for the fibre gateway and digital infrastructure was often met with cynicism. In order to get a license to press ahead with the UK-Ireland gateway she had to pay at the upper end of the regulatory table after international comparisons were done.

“It was extremely frustrating," she said.

She urged the present administration to keep the door open. "Companies like EMC, Intel, Google and BT deserve open access to Government which should be welcoming, particularly in terms of new employment.

“But we must also realise that new employment will come from small companies, not just large companies like Facebook that can create hundreds of positions, but smaller companies with five up to 25 and not beyond that.

“We need to be understanding of the different requirements - if you have 10 new cloud computing companies who need telecoms we need to see policy for these smaller companies," Hodnett said.

John Kennedy

clohamon

Good God, what a boring person she is.

Dianeh116

Hey..didnt know that we knew each other:) Actually we don't....;)

bealtine

Dianeh116 wrote: »

Hey..didnt know that we knew each other:) Actually we don't....;)

Hey Diane

Welcome to our forum. I think you are doing a great job in a difficult to understand area.

However this I would not agree with "Hodnett said the present government "right up to minister level" is much more open to understanding the opportunities of the digital age than the previous administration."

The government hear "big data" and immediately switch off and their eyes glaze over in intense moronity, they simply have no clue what you are talking about. I only know 2 or 3 politicians who actually understand what data is, let alone it's importance to the Irish economy.

The comms part of the DECNR is staffed by half-wits (yes I've dealt with them) and any voice that attempts to explain the basics to them is always welcome...

Dianeh116

bealtine wrote: »

Dianeh116 wrote: »

Hey..didnt know that we knew each other:) Actually we don't....;)

Hey Diane

Welcome to our forum. I think you are doing a great job in a difficult to understand area.

However this I would not agree with "Hodnett said the present government "right up to minister level" is much more open to understanding the opportunities of the digital age than the previous administration."

The government hear "big data" and immediately switch off and their eyes glaze over in intense moronity, they simply have no clue what you are talking about. I only know 2 or 3 politicians who actually understand what data is, let alone it's importance to the Irish economy.

The comms part of the DECNR is staffed by half-wits (yes I've dealt with them) and any voice that attempts to explain the basics to them is always welcome...

I am just grateful that there is a focus back on technology and creating sustainable and meaningful jobs in Ireland. Remember how for the best part of ten years it was just about property and there was no investment in infrastructure or startups. We are at a starting point now and we need to keep up the momentum ..., and sometimes that means repeating the same message over and over again. It will eventually get through and as things are so screwed up at least we now have an Adminstration willing to listen

SeaSide

Diane, gonna have to respectfully disagree with you.

I've wasted too much of my life and seen too many "the administration" gets it to really see that this time its going to be different.

I've listened to the minister speak and am pretty certain he doesn't understand it let alone get it.

Maybe I'm just getting (more) cynical in my old age

bealtine

Dianeh116 wrote: »

It will eventually get through and as things are so screwed up at least we now have an Adminstration willing to listen

I'm not so sure they are "willing to listen", they do listen but simply do not understand.
I spoke to a senior politician recently on the subject of broadband provision throughout the state...his answer to the question both baffled and bemused me :

When pressed he said If they don't have broadband can't they just use their phone? (This was one of the more clued in ones too and certainly not stupid by any stretch of the imagination)

This demonstrates that many in government cannot even distinguish between a phone and broadband or somehow the two get conflated together perhaps due to the over-active marketing departments of the mobile companies.

What did the "man on a bicycle" ever understand about interconnects or some random "arts and law" graduate? The only politicians who had a clue ended up in transport or agriculture.

This also demonstrates that in general they have no clue what technologists are talking about. The idea of undersea cables is just foreign and exotic even though it is a vital component and a key underpinning of the nascent and booming Irish data economy.

Yes technologists have a serious fight on their hands to get an appreciation of the issues onto the agenda for government and an understanding of the urgency of the issues and the subsequent benefits to the Irish economy.
Yes you are right the effects are not tangible like a new building or a housing estate as they can't be immediately observed but they are none the less equally as real.

Solair

The problem for home users, SMEs and even quite large companies that aren't plugged directly into huge fibre pipes is not lack of fibre though.

Ireland does ok in terms of international bandwidth and even national fibre networks.

Our problem is that too many people are reliant on creaking old DSL networks running on a poorly maintained copper network.

Many companies here can't develop products that could become indigenous big data products because customers can't get sufficient bandwidth to form a testbed for products nor can SMEs get access to the bandwidth available elsewhere in the world in similar locations.


We need to stop confusing back haul, international connectivity with local access networks.

Other than UPC, our local access networks basically suck!

We do need to get big fibre connections to Cork,Galway,Limerick etc though too.
Otherwise all big data will end up within a few km of the fibre termination points in Dublin.
I know Cork's supposedly getting tier 1 fibre connectivity directly to the US and UK but we really do need to get this stuff right.

I get very worried when politicians display no knowledge or interest in this stuff. It's not any more complicated than understanding a motorway network.


A few regional super nodes should be developed.

clohamon

Dianeh116 wrote: »

Hey..didnt know that we knew each other:) Actually we don't....;)

Yes, I don't know you, but it's great to see you've signed up.

What specifically do you want the government to do?