A new study by the Center of Energy-Efficient Telecommunications, a joint effort between AT&T Bell Labs and the University of Melbourne, Australia, found that wireless networking infrastructures across the globe account for 10 times the power consumption as data centers worldwide. All told, such networks are responsible for 90% of the power usage by the cloud infrastructure, and that consumption is growing fast.
According to the CEET, within the next three years, the wireless cloud infrastructure will likely consume as much as 43 terawatt-hours of electricity across the world. The projected power consumption is a nearly 460% increase from the 9.2 terawatt-hours that were consumed by the wireless infrastructure in 2012. To stay on top of all the trends, subscribe to Database Trends and Applications magazine.