Get ready for greener and more intelligent networks

Organisations need to move away from the ‘rip and replace’ approach and substitute it with sustainable, secure, and scalable network architecture

Technology and the Internet are emerging as the country’s most powerful enablers of economic and social transformation. According to a KPMG report, 5G can boost the national GDP by $500 billion in 2025. However, the network and connectivity must be reimagined to realise its true potential. Sustainability has to become the core of everything we do and create. We need to move away from the ‘rip and replace’ approach and substitute it with new and improved network architecture, which is efficient, secure, and scalable to adapt to the evolving business needs. Here are a few connectivity, networking, and collaboration technologies that have the potential to transform businesses in the year ahead.

Internet of Things

Today, networks support unpredictable traffic volume, mobile, and IoT devices; approximately 20 billion devices are connected to the Internet. And this is expected to grow to 75 billion by 2026, according to Gartner. These connected devices are expected to generate massive amounts of data that will exceed the ability of human operators to manage alone on time. Therefore, the adoption of IoT will help the telecom industry monitor base stations and data centres remotely, ensuring minimal downtime for the network, enhanced business operations, and more revenue generation.

Metaverse

The Metaverse has the potential to impact all our lives in many ways and bring about transformational changes to the way we work, transact, and interact. Gartner predicts that by 2026, nearly 25% of people will spend at least an hour a day in the Metaverse. By embracing this virtual environment, organisations can enhance customer experience, monetise investments through adjacent services and increase operational efficiency. Augmented Reality is rising as a valuable asset in creating the Metaverse.

Edge Computing evolution

To prepare for 5G profitability and enable IoT and Metaverse technologies, service providers and application developers must rethink how their data sources and applications are distributed. Low-latency applications will require intelligence distributed to the edge where the use cases reside. Other applications may benefit by avoiding the constant backhaul or distribution of traffic from centralised data centres. Therefore, as the demand for real-time processing and low-latency connectivity applications and services increases, edge computing will become indispensable as part of a hybrid cloud computing model.

IoT will help the telecom industry monitor infrastructure remotely, ensuring enhanced business operations and more revenue generation.

Moreover, it will enable the service provider industry to offer an edge cloud platform to deliver services for vertical industry participants. It will help the service provider industry offer more innovation, enhance customer service, and ultimately become a true digital value player in the Industry 4.0 era.

Most importantly, sustainability has to take centre stage in everything that organisations do. Today businesses across sectors, even the telecom industry, are committing to Net Zero policies and programs.

Going ahead, the industry will need to continuously work on improving the energy efficiency of products, saving energy, and reducing carbon emissions for themselves as well as their customers. Organisations will also need to explore technologies that can help them transition to a more efficient way of building and operating networks, reducing legacy technology and focusing on sustainable components that will save money and the environment.

By Anand Bhaskar

Anand is the Managing Director of the Service Provider Business at Cisco India and SAARC

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