So says a Study on the Internet’s Technical Success Factors commissioned by APNIC and LACNIC – the regional internet address registries for the Asia–Pacific and Latin America and Caribbean regions respectively – and written by consultancy Analysys Mason.
The document states that “a significant fraction of global IP traffic now consists of data that is moved between the datacentres and edge networks of large internet companies.” Those companies’ needs, and growing networks, lead the analysts to suggest that "over time, we could see the internet transform into a more centralised system with a few global private networks carrying most of the content and services.
Another risk is that when private networks break, many users suffer. Exhibit A: yesterday’s AWS brownout, which hurt Netflix and Disney+, among others.
Yet, if you look at nearly all the alternative social networks springing up, you’ll see decentralisation, openness, interoperability, chronological feeds, no Big Tech…
See https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/09/study_on_the_internets_technical_success_factors/
#technology #interoperability #BigTech #openstandards #decentralisation
It’s similar to the supply chain issues. Centralization and concentration are good for efficiency but they can lead to very fragile systems. When those fragile and now big systems break, they make for high profile events that serve as a warning and counterforce to efficiency.
It doesn’t matter if you shave 0.1% off your bandwidth costs if you lose 5% of your customers every year due to outages.
So I think it will work itself out as long as people cancel and look for alternatives these things when they’re not getting a good experience. Normalizing consumer rights is the best way to help this and plenty of other issues.