Recently, Varnish Software and Intel announced a major step forward for streaming (and content) delivery, reaching almost 400 Gbps on off-the-shelf hardware. The Supermicro server was powered by 3rd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, running a new NUMA-aware version of Varnish Enterprise. Our performance benchmarks were featured in a demo at Mobile World Congress, available here.

Reaching almost 400 Gbps on a standard server is likely a new record for standard software, which may have a disruptive impact on existing hardware and software technologies that sometimes can only deliver a tenth of this capacity.

Being the fastest and most performant is in the DNA of Varnish Software, and our core engineers are obsessed with breaking boundaries like this (expect them to reach even higher). Working with amazing partners like Intel to achieve benchmarks like this is very exciting for us, but there is also an important reason behind it.

In 2016, in line with UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the mobile industry as a whole committed to working toward achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. As the mobile industry integrates and converges seamlessly with other aspects of the IT landscape, the entire technology industry is shifting to a focus on optimizing energy efficiency and reducing their carbon footprint at the same time as delivering exceptional and uncompromising performance and user experiences to more users, more devices - faster than ever.

As a society we’ve come to depend so much on cloud computing that we think of it as a “set and forget” resource (if we think of it at all). We are reassured by its ubiquity and the ease with which we can easily spin up new cloud instances to meet our immediate capacity or performance needs. The cloud has essentially created a false sense of security, as many businesses have learned during the Covid crisis. As they went to expand their capacity in the face of unseen demand, they found that the cloud is also finite. When things settled down after the initial rush as Covid lockdowns took effect, cloud providers returned to normal. But the new extremes of use showed how taking the cloud for granted isn’t difficult. If you’re not the one taking care of hardware or infrastructure yourself, it’s invisible. 

The level of global video streaming has skyrocketed since the Covid-19 crisis began, with more people staying at home, watching video across all their devices. The carbon footprint of this nonstop viewing isn’t easy to calculate, but it’s fair to say that it’s significant. One aggressive claim cites a six-hour video binge on Netflix as equivalent to burning a liter of fuel. Streaming involves a complex mix of data center capacity and electricity -- both of which produce carbon dioxide, the levels of which vary depending on the technology being used.