Challenges and Opportunities of a Vastly Distributed Cloud Computing Infrastructure – In the Context of the Dong Shu Xi Suan (DSXS) Project of China

It has been widely recognized that placing cloud data centers near clean energy sources or in cooler environments may reduce the operational cost and carbon footprint. But when the scale of the system, in terms of the overall computing power and territorial coverage, is large, such benefits may be offset by the additional cost of moving data around and the complexity of efficiently utilizing the network and computational resources. In this paper, we discuss the benefits and challenges of a vastly distributed cloud computing infrastructure, in the particular context of the east-west synergized cloud computing project in China, i.e., the Dong Shu Xi Suan Project (DSXS). We discuss the state of art research that are relevant to this topic, and explore the potential technological advances such a project may bring.