Decentralized Small Data Centers
30_Knowledge/Cloud Computing improved the efficiency of data centers (PUE).
However, looking only at the data centersβ efficiency is shortsighted. Small power plants around a hyper-scale data center cannot cover its high electricity demand, thus having to transfer electricity from far away.
Transitioning to an internet with multiple smaller geographically distributed data centers means that data consumers (e.g., video streaming applications running on laptops) and producers (e.g., IoT devices) will likely have a data center in proximity. Thus, data transmission networks will consume less energy because data will cover shorter distances to and from data centers.
Moreover, establishing small, decentralized data centers will make the Internet more resilient because a failure in a small data center will have a limited blast radius.
π References
Calling for a greener Internet: Decentralized with smaller data centers | Ioannis Kolaxis