SoLiXG:Digital Infrastructure: Difference between revisions
(Created page with "== Digital Infrastructure == As a verb, ''to compute'' could simply mean using a computer, calculating or making sense. More recently, in the context of The Cloud, ''compute'' is being used as a noun to signify the combination of processing power, memory, networking and storage that is required to run software applications. The objectification of computing (from verb to noun) is synchronous with the rise of infrastructure-as-a-service (...") |
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== Digital Infrastructure == | == Digital Infrastructure == | ||
Digital infrastructure interconnects both physical and virtual technologies to deliver computational processing power, digital file storage and software applications to billions of devices. It is an infrastructure-of-infrastructures which includes The Internet, but also mobile telecommunication networks, satellites, sensor networks and Cloud computing. Digital infrastructure can also be referred to as "computational infrastructure" because it involves large amounts of computing hardware, distributed over strategically located data centres that are connected through public and private networks. Operating across diverse geopolitical and financial contexts, contemporary digital infrastructure is rapidly evolving and requires an increasing volume of exhaustible resources such as clean water for cooling, critical metals and electricity. Despite ongoing investments by nation-states and the EU, the biggest part of digital infrastructure today is managed by global Big Tech companies such as Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft. These companies are owned by shareholders, who need to prove growth year on year. Their services therefore move into new areas continuously, increasing the need for more digital services, or more compute. Whether it is to shift packages across the globe, organizing for resistance against apartheid, or executing border policies, digital infrastructure has become a condition for existence with no outside. | |||
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Revision as of 22:40, 24 January 2024
Digital Infrastructure
Digital infrastructure interconnects both physical and virtual technologies to deliver computational processing power, digital file storage and software applications to billions of devices. It is an infrastructure-of-infrastructures which includes The Internet, but also mobile telecommunication networks, satellites, sensor networks and Cloud computing. Digital infrastructure can also be referred to as "computational infrastructure" because it involves large amounts of computing hardware, distributed over strategically located data centres that are connected through public and private networks. Operating across diverse geopolitical and financial contexts, contemporary digital infrastructure is rapidly evolving and requires an increasing volume of exhaustible resources such as clean water for cooling, critical metals and electricity. Despite ongoing investments by nation-states and the EU, the biggest part of digital infrastructure today is managed by global Big Tech companies such as Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft. These companies are owned by shareholders, who need to prove growth year on year. Their services therefore move into new areas continuously, increasing the need for more digital services, or more compute. Whether it is to shift packages across the globe, organizing for resistance against apartheid, or executing border policies, digital infrastructure has become a condition for existence with no outside.