Microsoft Research Cambridge has brought together its Optics for the Cloud collaborations with several university research groups in Europe and the US to create the Optics for the Cloud Research Alliance. This Alliance investigates and develops optical technologies for the cloud. The Alliance takes a multi-disciplinary approach to tackle big and open challenges, with an aim to enable greater adoption of optical technologies in cloud infrastructure, including cloud storage, network, and compute.
The research spans a significant part of the cloud infrastructure ecosystem, ranging from photonics fabrication, via optical system and sub-system design, to co-design and integration with the rest of the data centre stack. The Alliance provides a vibrant collaborative research environment, involving experts across optical and cloud research disciplines, with an open publications policy. The Alliance funds a cohort of PhD scholars. The three-year PhDs target long-term problems and aim to advance the state o
The primary goals of the alliance are to: