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Facebook Open Sources Its Network Routing Platform Open/R (techcrunch.com)
Facebook will open source its modular network routing software Open/R, currently used in its backbone and data center networks, which "provides a platform to disseminate state across the network and allows new applications to be built on top of it." An anonymous reader quotes TechCrunch:
Facebook obviously has unique scale needs when it comes to running a network. It has billions of users doing real-time messaging and streaming content at a constant clip. As with so many things, Facebook found that running the network traffic using traditional protocols had its limits and it needed a new way to route traffic that didn't rely on the protocols of the past, Omar Baldonado, Engineering Director at Facebook explained... While it was originally developed for Facebook's Terragraph wireless backhaul network, the company soon recognized it could work on other networks too including the Facebook network backbone, and even in the middle of Facebook network, he said. Given the company's extreme traffic requirements where the conditions were changing so rapidly and was at such scale, they needed a new way to route traffic on the network. "We wanted to find per application, the best path, taking into account dynamic traffic conditions throughout the network," Baldonado said.
But Facebook also recognized that it could only take this so far internally, and if they could work with partners and other network operators and hardware manufacturers, they could extend the capabilities of this tool. They are in fact working with other companies in this endeavor including Juniper and Arista networks, but by open sourcing the software, it allows developers to do things with it that Facebook might not have considered, and their engineering team finds that prospect both exciting and valuable.
"Most protocols were initially designed based on constrained hardware and software environment assumptions from decades ago," Facebook said in its announcement. "To continue delivering rich, real-time, and highly engaging user experiences over networks, it's important to accelerate innovation in the routing domain."
But Facebook also recognized that it could only take this so far internally, and if they could work with partners and other network operators and hardware manufacturers, they could extend the capabilities of this tool. They are in fact working with other companies in this endeavor including Juniper and Arista networks, but by open sourcing the software, it allows developers to do things with it that Facebook might not have considered, and their engineering team finds that prospect both exciting and valuable.
"Most protocols were initially designed based on constrained hardware and software environment assumptions from decades ago," Facebook said in its announcement. "To continue delivering rich, real-time, and highly engaging user experiences over networks, it's important to accelerate innovation in the routing domain."
For Facebook would be to /dev/null
Start something even more retarded and flashy to lure users away?
Maybe you should relax and find something else to focus on?
>Start something even more retarded and flashy
Ideas a a dime a dozen; I have several Facebook-killers in mind. Give me the resources to implement just one of them and I can get the job done.
So there's really two problems - first is getting the financing to take on an established industry giant, second is that whatever I did to destroy Facebook would, in fact, likely be less desirable.
On the other hand, I'd be rich instead of Zuckerberg, so I'm willing to try.
Facebookâ(TM)s value is the number of people signed up to it. Other than that, it has the same tech as Google Plus or Diaspora, both of which are dead because of their limited userbase. Facebook will remain dominant simply by having the users to create enough content to be interesting. No upstart can beat that without a radically different technology than a feed.
> Facebook's value is the number of people signed up to it.
True
> Facebook will remain dominant simply by having the users to create enough content to be interesting. No upstart can beat that ...
Myspace was THE social networking site. Then Facebook challenged Myspace, then beat them. Network effects are.powerful, but not insurmountable.
One of the the more likely scenarios for something else to beat out Facebook is if they start in a very specific niche, such as DoctorNet, or CopBook . The service would be tailored to doctors, but could offer all the same features as Facebook. Once DoctorNet is strong among doctors, they'd add NurseNet, then RxNet, etc, growing their own network effects within a specific community and extending outward until they could challenge Facebook in general. Language specific networks could be another avenue. If a company had a strong presence in German, and Dutch, perhaps, they could add languages and cultures, then carefully interweave the different networks to create a super-network that retains specific communities as parts. Certain companies who run thousands of interest-specific web forums might be able o pull this off.
But where did they go?
Not to arse-technia that's for sure. Nothing but barely technical hipster SJW there.
Yeah Myspace had 80 million users alright - when Facebook had about half as much. Myspace had 50-60 million when Facebook had ZERO.
These figures show Myspace at 110 million, Facebook at 60 million:
http://www.web-strategist.com/...
> How is that likely? Because you said so? Is there really any evidence that people have any reason to flock to niche-oriented social networks?
Have you ever heard of a company called Facebook? How about Slashdot? The Slashdot effect, or "getting Slashdotted". Do you know why we don't read the articles before commenting? When Facebook had less than 1% the number of users as Myspace, they had nearly 100% of Harvard students. When they had half as many as Myspace, they had 85% of university students. That's how Facebook took on, and beat, the #1 social networking site - by getting a very specific niche, Harvard students, then growing that to university students, then twenty-somethings.
When I started participating on Slashdot (daily), most of the time you couldn't read the linked article because the site would be down from the swarm of other Slashdot users trying to read it at the same time. So many people would "flock to niche-oriented" sites to have conversations that the news-for-nerds niche site (Slashdot) had more users than most sites could handle. When a site was taken down by the sheer number of nerds of Slashdot, that was called "getting Slashdotted".
"Billions of users?"
Yeah, you're going to need to cite that assertion.
Kriston