A smart, streamlined, trustworthy computing service market

Commercial context

Raw computing power is the engine behind all modern-day digital services, so it’s no surprise that the explosive growth of digital services has come with a huge rise in its demand. There’s no sign of this changing course; moreover, with the advent of the era of artificial intelligence generative content (AIGC), the demand for computing resources and services is rocketing. And, as demand for more compact devices grows – and networks become capable of handling ever-greater payloads – computing is shifting from local hardware to remote cloud servers.

Despite the huge demand, though, it’s not always easy for companies to find, buy, and make use of additional computing services if needed – and when they do, the package on offer is often not flexible enough to justify a purchase. There’s equal frustration on the supply side, too, as computing service suppliers often need to manually search for demand – often resulting in inefficient and wasteful mismatches between supply and demand.

The solution

Creating a means for the efficient and effective distribution and use of computing resources and services is an unsung priority for the wider tech industry and must be addressed. The Trustworthy computing transaction service Catalyst has been established to meet this challenge. Working with a variety of organizations across the ecosystem, the project aims to transform the current market into a more integrated, productive and innovative place to do business.

The proposed solution lies in developing a trustworthy computing transaction service (TCTS) platform, built on underlying bearer networks, and using blockchain and artificial intelligence as enabling technologies. This TCTS platform serves as an intermediary between suppliers of computing service and those who need it, and orchestrates their respective capabilities and demands. In effect, the TCTS matches the demands and supplies for computing service consumption without traditional centralized intermediaries.

The TCTS platform includes key functionalities such as account registration, account management, service management, consumption log management, and communication management. The platform also uses fair, trustworthy and dynamic matching mechanisms to assign optimized allocation of computing resources and services.

The TCTS takes advantage of the underlying bearer networks that connect computing service suppliers and demanders, and benefits from them. When conducting the transactions for computing service consumption, this TCTS platform always negotiates with the underlying bearer networks to make optimized data transportation routes for the matching pairs of computing service consumption (suppliers of computing service and those who need it). The matching pairs can then securely and efficiently exchange data for computing services, and in turn, the efficiency and utility rate of the bearer networks can be improved.

Applications

For businesses across the board, the TCTS enables more effective use of diverse computing services and resources. The great variety of suppliers and their products can now be matched with demand in a dynamic, fair, transparent and trustworthy mechanism. Ultimately, it means enhanced and efficient computing resource allocation, with a streamlined route to revenue and energy reduction.

According to Dr. Yulun Song from China Unicom, “this TCTS platform is designed to accommodate the diversity of computing service consumption, to provide dynamic, fair, transparent and trustworthy computing transaction service, and to enhance the quality of computing services for both computing service demanders and suppliers. China Unicom has already seen expected returns from our relevant pilot deployed in China Unicom’s clouds in Beijing, Langfang, Hohhot and Guiyang. I am hopeful that this innovative platform will continue to promote the efficient and orderly development of computing service industry. I look forward to witnessing its transformative impact on relevant businesses, industries and society."

Wider value

The solution propels the wider industry towards a more open and collaborative computing ecosystem. This paves the way for an open, fair, and trustworthy computing service market, democratizing access to computing services and resources. Beyond this, we expect the Catalyst to accelerate the deployment of high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, and complex, specialized computing - this in turn, will bring huge benefits to all sectors, and will transform service provision as we know it.