Computing Now is Inseparable from Communications

Sometimes we only understand the value of something when it suddenly becomes unavailable. 

What is the value of one’s mobile phone, personal computer, applications, television, smartwatch, sensors or transaction appliances when power and internet connectivity are lost? If one could quantify value, it would be a number close to zero, in the absence of power and internet connectivity. 

It is estimated that intentional shutdowns of the internet by governments alone caused $24 billion in economic losses in 2022, for example. Deloitte researchers estimated in 2016 that a one-day internet outage affecting 10 million people in a country with high gross domestic product costs $24 million. 

source: Deloitte 

The point is that modern computing is inseparable from internet connectivity. That applies equally to end users as well as application and service providers; data centers and content owners; transaction platforms, logistics, transport, media and retail operations.

Most computing in the mainframe and minicomputer eras, followed by the early personal computer era, did not rely centrally on wide area networking, though local area connections often were important or essential. That largely remained true in the client-server era. But all that changed when computing became highly distributed in the internet, web, cloud computing and mobile computing periods, when resources were, by definition, remote. 

Paul M. Veillard 

As all media types became digital, content consumption and creation also were decentralized. The obvious implication is that modern computing cannot be divorced from networks and communication. 

Though much computing and processing happens at the edge, in an organization's private data center, onboard a PC, sensor or mobile device, most workloads now require remote processing. Hence the need for good connectivity, ranging from home broadband to mobile networks to metro capacity, inter-city links and subsea networks. 

source: Telegeography