In our previous blog, we focused on where the sustainability puck is, our overall research and where we are going in helping our telecom and enterprise customers reach their sustainability goals. Where does the puck go next? Out to the edge! What is interesting about the edge is that, as we make an impact in edge sustainability, I see the ROI for both communications service providers (CSPs) and the enterprise, making implementing these solutions even more compelling.
5G has been called “the Enterprise G” because CSPs have the potential to monetize their network investments as they work to solve enterprise challenges, leveraging their highly distributed network to process data where it is generated—at the edge and at customer sites. And if CSPs can build edge solutions with sustainability in mind, their ROI will be potentially better due to reductions in energy consumption. In our research with GSMA Intelligence, we found that by retaining 20% of traffic at the edge (instead of sending it to the cloud), there is a potential overall reduction in energy use of 15%. Similarly, at a higher scale, if 40% of edge data were retained, this would translate into an energy savings of just over 30% (see Figure 8 below). There are, of course, variations on this, but the edge can be more efficient if CSPs make better use of it in building enterprise solutions.