Cloud Begins With Coal.pdf

The  Cloud  Begins  With  Coal  

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Now,  the  scale  and  the  character  of  the  ICT  ecosystem  are  changing.  Not  only  will  there  be  more  and  
bigger  data  centers  coming,  but  the  evolution  of  computing  towards  mobile  platforms,  smart  phones  
and  tablets  creating  the  “Mobile  Internet”  is  radically  altering  where  and  how  data  are  produced  and  
used,  collaterally  changing  the  nature  and  scale  of  the  network  infrastructure.      
 
Global Installed Based of Computing - - The Rise of the Mobile Internet

 

Data Source: Internet Trends, Mary Meeker, Kleiner Perkins, 2012 & 2013
PCs (including notebooks) vs. smart mobile (tablets + smartphones)

 

 

 
The  Mobile  Internet,  the  Cloud  and  Big  Data  revolutions  create  economic  opportunity  and  generate  
enormous  efficiencies.    But  just  how  big  is  the  global  ICT  ecosystem  now,  and  how  big  will  it  become?    
How  much  electricity  is  consumed,  and  will  be  consumed  in  the  future,  by  the  entire  ICT  ecosystem?  
 
The  new  and  emerging  digital  devices  and  services  for  consumer  and  businesses  have  created  
opportunities  unimagined  in  scale  or  character  by  any  visionary  during  the  heyday  of  “irrational  
exuberance”  of  the  1990s  when  the  Internet  began.    Soon  more  data  will  be  associated  with  non-­‐PC  
devices  than  PCs  –  even  as  PC-­‐centric  traffic  itself  doubles.  
 
 

Where Global Data Traffic Originates

 
Data Source: Cisco, The Zettabyte Era
At 80 exabytes monthly, the world enters the zettabyte per year era.

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