[2] According to Cisco Systems, an American multinational technology conglomerate, the global IP traffic achieved an estimated 1.2 zettabytes in 2016, an average of 96 exabytes (EB) per month.
[7] In 2015, 2% of total global power was taken up by the Internet and all its components, so energy efficiency with regards to data centers has become a central problem in the Zettabyte Era.
[4][2] To put this into perspective, consider that "if each terabyte in a zettabyte were a kilometre, it would be equivalent to 1,300 round trips to the moon and back (768,800 kilometers)".
[4] As former Google CEO Eric Schmidt puts it, from the very beginning of humanity to the year 2003, an estimated 5 exabytes of information was created,[11] which corresponds to 0.5% of a zettabyte.
Cisco also provided future predictions of global IP traffic in their report The Zettabyte Era: Trends and Analysis.
This report uses current and past global IP traffic statistics to forecast future trends.
[3][13][14] There is a large, and ever-growing consumption of multimedia, including video streaming, on the Internet that has contributed to the rise of the Zettabyte Era.
[17][dubious – discuss] Netflix and YouTube are at the top of the list in terms of the most globally streamed video services online.
Netflix is the largest paid video streaming service in the world, accessible in over 200 countries and with more than 80 million subscribers.
[21] The vast amount of data marks an unparalleled period in time and is one of the major contributing factors that has led the world into the Zettabyte Era.
[3] According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), mobile broadband penetration rates are ever-growing.
[27] The Zettabyte Era has affected Internet service providers (ISPs) with the growth of data flowing from all directions.
[29] Network management practices have brought about debates relating to net neutrality in terms of fair access to all content on the Internet.
[29] According to The European Consumer Organisation, network neutrality can be understood as an aim that "all Internet should be treated equally, without discrimination or interference.
When this is the case, users enjoy the freedom to access the content, services, and applications of their choice, using any device they choose".
[30] According to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) Telecom Regulatory Policy 2009-657 there are two forms of Internet network management practices in Canada.
[31][clarification needed] In the United States, however, during the Obama-era administration, under the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) 15–24 policy, there were three bright-line rules in place to protect net neutrality: no blocking, no throttling, no paid prioritization.
[32] On 14 December 2017, the FCC voted 3–2 to remove these rules, allowing ISPs to block, throttle and give fast-lane access to content on their network.
[41] Information and communication technologies, including data centers, are responsible for creating large quantities of CO2 emissions.
[47][48] The OCP members collaborate in order to build new technological hardware that is more efficient, economical and sustainable in an age where data is ever-growing.