The Digital Infrastructure behind the metaverse
The metaverse cannot exist without the physical digital infrastructure in place to support it. From the core to the edge, the data necessary for the digital world to become a virtual reality and for people to interact in the metaverse all travels through, and is computed in, the digital infrastructure.
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The Digital Infrastructure behind the metaverse
The metaverse cannot exist without the physical digital infrastructure in place to support it. From the core to the edge, the data necessary for the digital world to become a virtual reality and for people to interact in the metaverse all travels through, and is computed in, the digital infrastructure.
Data centers are one of the world's most energy-intensive sectors to operate. If a national or a local government decides to control the carbon footprint generated by the data center industry, this could severely limit the ability for the metaverse to operate. Likewise, if connections to power grids are restricted, data center owners and operators will need to find alternative solutions to power their campuses. If the telecommunication networks no longer offer sufficient bandwidth to provide the reduced latency required to build the virtual world, the user experience and adoption rate will be impacted. If an edge network is subject to a cyberattack, the impact of such attacks may propagate across the digital infrastructure. If any of these risks are not known, and controlled, investors seeking to own and operate the digital infrastructure, and the metaverse itself, may not end up becoming a reality. These are just a few examples of how critical the existence of a performant digital infrastructure is in order to deliver the metaverse.
Key legal risks / issues
- Real Estate: land acquisition, construction and permitting, license to occupy and easements, due diligence, environmental law
- Corporate Finance: financial markets, private equity, joint ventures
- Cybersecurity: protecting vulnerable edge nodes
- Commercial contracts: data center colocation agreements, content delivery network (CDN) and Edge agreements, cloud IT and other customer contracts
- Telecommunications: ensuring the absence of undesired/uncontrolled encroachment with Telecommunications regulations; space law; subsea and subterranean cables, towers and masts, networks
- Power: understanding green legislations in key markets; build winning power purchase agreements (PPAs) with public entities; explore innovative solutions like onsite power generation, including via hydrogen or mini nuclear reactors
Questions to consider
If your business is considering changing its strategy and making the metaverse a central element of its development, it is crucial to consider the broader ability to deliver a consistent user experience. Asking whether the portion of the digital infrastructure on which you will rely will allow you to secure a continuous, and performant, access to the metaverse is a key consideration.
If you are considering the implementation of your own data centers, this should be decided carefully. The level of investment required and the skills and experience needed to operate are very specific. In addition, as governments keep the industry under strict scrutiny with a view to meeting greener objectives and targets, these factors should all be taken into account before investing into data center and edge networks.
Key terms
- Digital Infrastructure: general term used to encompass three mutually necessary and intricated elements: data centers, where data is stored and computed; connectivity, allowing data to travel to and from data centers to users; and power, a necessity to allow the digital infrastructure to function
- Core of the digital infrastructure: large data centers where data is stored and processed, and where operators’ customers can interconnect between each other
- Edge computing: the distribution of part of the storage and compute closer to the end users to allow for a low latency which is critical to the use of Iot devices and the metaverse
Contact
Sebastien Bonneau
Click on the topics of interest available below to explore the legal issues arising in the metaverse. We will be releasing further reading on a variety of topics periodically.
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