Top of the big era

With the development of the Internet, the number of users is increasing, and the scale of data generated is also increasing, resulting in changes in data management models.

The database industry is undergoing a migration from traditional databases to distributed databases.

In the past, databases were hardware-centric and had to be installed on expensive servers to run perfectly. In the future, data centers will use a large number of standardized cheap servers and use software technology to make up for the shortcomings of hardware. That is, the database is becoming software-centric, which leads to different architecture choices and output methods.

Cloud computing came into being under this major change in the industry.

Ziweixing has currently completed three cloud data center bases across the country, namely Capital, Pengcheng, and Chuncheng used for data backup.

The design scale of the Capital Cloud Computing Center is 200,000 servers, and the first phase of the project is 20,000 servers.

It has already been applied.

Next, it’s time to start construction on the second phase of the project.

At the same time, the second phase of Pengcheng Cloud Data Center and nine first-tier cities including Hangcheng, Yangcheng, Chongqing, Modu, Jinmen, and Chang'an have also started construction projects.

Zhou Buqi attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the second phase of the Capital Cloud Data Center project.

On the way back, Zhou Buqi was in the same car with Xu Liangjie and called Zhou Feng, the CEO of Cloud Computing Engineering.

Zhou Feng said that it is expected that by the end of next year, Ziweiyun will have a total scale of approximately 150,000 servers across the country and strive to reach a scale of 1 million servers in China within three years.

Zhou Buqi waved his hand, "I don't have hard targets here. As long as the cloud computing business is on the right track, everything will be based on the data model."

Zhou Feng smiled and said, "It's developing very fast."

Zhou Buqi asked: "When will our cloud computing platform be officially made public?"

Zhou Feng said: "It has been opened, but it is a limited invitation. Sohu has already moved some businesses to the cloud. In the past three months, we have moved some businesses to the cloud, mainly for testing to verify the stability of Ziwei Cloud. In addition to internal In addition to business, there is also testing of external business, and Sohu is very proactive."

"How's the effect?"

“The pros and cons are obvious.”

"oh?"

"The advantage is that the calculation speed is really fast. When on-campus group buying was launched in the past, page lags often occurred due to too much traffic. After the campus network became cloud-based, this problem was effectively solved. In fact, it is a server allocation problem. The distribution in the cloud is more flexible and does not have to be as complex as offline servers."

Zhou Feng was obviously very proud.

As the second scientist of Ziweiyun's R\u0026D team and the first business leader of the cloud computing business, he is very proud of the success of this project.

If he hadn't switched jobs from NetEase, how would he have gotten such a good opportunity?

Zhou Buqi nodded, "What about the disadvantages?"

Zhou Feng coughed slightly and said, "The stability is still worse than that of offline servers. It requires an alternate restart of about 2-3 minutes almost every day. This is a technical problem and a systemic problem. Fortunately, the server is large in scale. , The current business volume is also small, as long as we wait until the early morning to restart alternately, it will not have an impact on the business."

Zhou Buqi tried to understand, "In other words, if there are too many businesses in the cloud, we will run into trouble?"

"It's possible." Zhou Feng said relatively relaxedly, "But the team is very confident that it can overcome the technical difficulties. In the short term, Ziweiyun will not be completely open to the public. It is mainly an invitation-only system and the server will be well controlled. proportional to the size of the business.”

Zhou Buqi said: “While building a new data center and setting up more servers, we are also working hard to solve technical problems.”

Zhou Feng nodded repeatedly, "I understand."

Zhou Buqi asked: "Is it possible to invite Youku?"

"Ah?" Zhou Feng was slightly startled, "Are you inviting Youku to go to the cloud?"

"Yes, is it feasible? I remember Youku's Gu Yongqiang told me that Youku's biggest expense is the server, followed by broadband service fees."

Zhou Buqi travels between China and the United States, and his thoughts can jump in time.

Copyright disputes have not yet arisen among domestic video websites. Basically, a video website has all kinds of resources, even the Hong Kong government's third-level movies in the 1990s.

For them, the biggest headache is the server.

With so many resources, how much storage space is required?

The faster the Internet speed, the greater the traffic, and the higher the definition, the greater the pressure on the server, so that half of their financing costs in each round are spent on purchasing servers.

Zhou Feng was a little embarrassed, "Well... let's not do it for now. Online video transmission technology is relatively complex, mainly due to network speed. There must be more nodes, which puts a lot of pressure on the operation of the main platform."

Zhou Buqi frowned slightly, "When can I expect to be there?"

Zhou Feng said vaguely: "Now there are small websites such as Xiaonei.com, Weizhi, Weimi, and Embarrassing Encyclopedia. Next, there will be content websites such as Toutiao, Weibo, and Friends.com, and then the software business and search business. In terms of video business, The difficulty of the cloud is even higher than that of the search business. Amazon’s video business has not moved to the cloud.”

"sure?"

"Sure, I've been paying attention to Amazon Cloud."

"That is not bad."

Zhou Buqi breathed a sigh of relief.

Cloud computing will be the infrastructure project of the future Internet industry. In the future, many companies, even giant companies, will no longer purchase additional servers when opening up new businesses, but will choose to purchase the services of a cloud computing platform.

Among them, the most urgent thing is not e-commerce or social networking, but streaming media platforms.

Such as Netflix.

Netflix is ​​now mainly expanding its business in the United States. It has 15 million member users, and only half of the users use video services. The operational pressure is not too great, and it can withstand the pressure by purchasing its own servers.

However, once a blockbuster film and television work appears, such as "Iron Man 2" landing on Netflix for exclusive broadcast on the entire network, there may be a surge in traffic, and the inherent servers may not be able to withstand it.

This requires the use of more powerful cloud computing services to meet demand.

We can’t let Netflix go to Amazon Cloud, right?

When Netflix expands its business in Europe, Asia, and South America in the future, it will definitely use cloud computing platforms to provide back-end services.

Currently, Ziweixing has launched the construction of 4 cloud data centers in the United States and 3 cloud data centers in Europe, with a total investment of US$400 million.

Next, we must further develop the cloud computing business and increase investment while taking advantage of the cheap land now.

China has already taken the lead, which is a good thing.

Through domestic business development, we can accumulate operational experience and solve technical problems. When the time comes overseas, we can occupy the market in advance and make full use of it.

Zhou Buqi said: "I have already won the relationship with Europe. Ziwei Cloud's business development in Europe will be more popular than Amazon Cloud. I have solved the external problems. Next, it depends on whether your team can The results have been achieved.”

"Europe? Won it?"

Xu Liangjie was surprised and felt that Boss Zhou's words were a bit big.

Zhou Buqi waved his hand, "Ziweixing Digital Media will be split independently. This is a football-related business and has extraordinary significance for Europe. In addition, the European economy is striving for stability, which is different from that of China and the United States. Europe They are not active in promoting e-commerce, and they are very wary of Amazon. This is Ziweixing’s opportunity.”

Xu Liangjie sighed inexplicably, "So fast! So strong!"

Zhou Feng was also shocked inside.

He is a scientific research expert and a business leader. He has been busy with project research and development and business development of cloud computing projects, and has no energy to pay attention to other things.

But he also heard that the big boss bought a team in the UK. It was said that he got rich and started playing football.

This is also understandable.

Who doesn’t have money?

But now that I have the opportunity to communicate closely with Boss Zhou, I realize that this is not the case at all! This is a strategic plan, and they are using football as an entry point to open up the European Internet market!

It even gave Ziweixing a higher social status than Amazon in Europe.

No wonder I haven't seen Boss Zhou in the company for a long time. He is pursuing a bigger international strategy for Ziweixing.

Although Ziweixing was split up, it did not deprive its employees of their shares. It adopted the method of allotment of shares equally in proportion. Regardless of whether it is domestic or overseas, Zi Weiyun is still run by Zhou Feng and his group, and the business structure has not changed at all.

Now that he heard that the door to Europe has been pushed open by the big boss, Zhou Feng was shocked and excited. He felt that he should not let down the big boss's hard work and should work harder!

"Give me another half year! In January next year, I will strive to have Youku on the cloud!"

Zhou Feng was impassioned, like a military order.

…

Zhou Buqi proposed convening a strategy committee.

The focus of the conference is cloud computing.

Cloud computing is a very cutting-edge direction, and has gradually entered the mainstream vision of the technology industry in Silicon Valley, but Silicon Valley is still in a state of widespread discussion. Except for Amazon, which is actively forging ahead, Google and Microsoft are only scratching the surface in this business. They are all software-based explorations without investment in hardware.

The most fundamental reason is that the investment in this thing is too high!

Amazon is unswerving because Amazon is engaged in e-commerce. Even if the future development of cloud computing does not go smoothly, Amazon will not lose anything. At least Amazon Cloud can serve its own Amazon e-commerce. This is enough. .

In other words, cloud computing is what Amazon needs.

Not so with other companies.

There are also some controversies within Ziweixing.

The technology industry is changing rapidly. From the current perspective, cloud computing seems to have a bright future. What if it doesn't work anymore? Among them, those studying in the United States, represented by Xu Liangjie, are the most worried.

If in the past few years, Google and Microsoft failed to respond and had no energy to do cloud computing, but now it is 2009, and the prospects of cloud computing are already obvious.

Why haven’t these two giants entered the market yet?

Why is the U.S. cloud computing market still a one-man show for Amazon?

Don’t experts from Microsoft and Google still understand the development trends of the industry?

What are they hesitating about?

Are there any unknown hidden dangers in this business?

Google and Microsoft are the representatives of Silicon Valley, while Amazon is just a seller and cannot be ranked at all.

This analysis makes sense.

When making technology products in China, when you are not sure about some strategic decisions or product details, just look at what the Silicon Valley giants are doing and then learn from it. This has been proven countless times to be a fast-track development path. road.

But Zhou Buqi was different. He knew that both Google and Microsoft were careless when it came to cloud computing. This gave Amazon, a sales platform that was looked down upon by the Silicon Valley technology industry, an opportunity to develop.

"Precisely because Google and Microsoft didn't do it, we have to do it even more! If they did, with their technical level and financial strength, how likely is it for Ziweiyun to gain a foothold in the international market?"

Zhou Buqi made a decision on this matter at the strategic committee, ending internal differences.

"We must stick to this matter!"

"Don't look at the noisy and stagnant parties in Silicon Valley who are still making arguments. They argue, and we act. This is our opportunity!"

"He Yang, please summarize my past strategic speeches at the Strategy Committee and send them to you. Since 2004, every strategic point of view I have said must be adhered to! No one can have the slightest doubt. ! Only by being unwavering internally can we have fighting strength! Only then can we declare war with the Silicon Valley giants!"