To meet the explosion in demand for capacity, communications systems are increasing bandwidth and performance. The performance of optical amplifiers, the enabling component of these systems, must be extended through fiber design and operation to support this explosion. Even greater capacity can be realized using other gain media, such as Raman amplifiers. This talk will discuss EDF design issues and progress in Raman amplification. An EDFA consists of a length of silica optical fiber whose core is doped with several hundred ppm Er. Population inversion achieved using diode laser pumping at either 1480 nm or 980 nm provides gain to an optical signal around 1530nm. Signals of many wavelengths can be amplified simultaneously allowing up to 160 wavelength channels to pass over a single fiber. This allows tremendous increases in capacity as channel counts increase. The C-band EDFA (1530-1565nm) is ubiquitous and is being augmented with L-band amps (1565 to 1610nm). One of the most critical amplifier characteristics is uniformity of gain and noise over the spectral window of the amplifier. Glass hosts such as fluorides and tellurites can provide more uniform gain but face many technical difficulties. The low loss window of silica extends from 1300 to 1600 nm, significantly broader than the gain region of EDFAs. Rare earth substitutes to erbium have had limited success, though Tm-doped amplifiers look promising. The most successful approach by far is the use of Raman amplification, in which pump powers of about one Watt generate gain over several kilometers of fiber through scattering from optical phonons. Raman amplifiers have been demonstrated at many wavelengths and offer great promise as discrete amps or in combination with EDFAs. Gain can also occur within the transmission fiber itself, reducing noise and increasing capacity and reach. Next generation systems must employ Raman amplification to continue to grow capacity.