Artificial intelligence runs, ma can't do it in a vacuumBehind Algorithms, Data Centers, and Real-Time Applications a capable network is needed to cope with the growing weight of data. This is the message sent by Joseph Gola, CEO of Open Fiber, speaking at the Trento Economics Festival: “Without fiber, this system cannot function fully.”
Fiber as an AI highway
For Gola, artificial intelligence requires fast, stable, and widespread connections: "Artificial intelligence and data centers require solid, widespread, and high-capacity digital infrastructure." Without fiber, the system cannot reach its full potential. Gola's image is effective: "It would be like having very powerful cars and making them race on dirt roads." Fiber optics, he added, "allows data, data centers, and artificial intelligence applications to communicate with each other, reducing latency and enabling the development of advanced services, especially for applications that require real-time responses."
This is where a game is played decisive part of the digital transformation: not only in computing power, but in the infrastructure's ability to bring that power closer to citizens, businesses, and public administrations.
The new challenge: transforming the network into value
According to Gola, Italy in recent years has recovered ground compared to the European average, bridging a significant portion of the infrastructure gap. "Open Fiber, with over 17 million fiber-connected properties, has built the most extensive FTTH network, fiber to the home, in Italy and the largest in terms of number of customers." Now, however, the situation is changing. After the infrastructure construction phase, the priority becomes to increase its use"The challenge is to increase the use of these networks and transform the available infrastructure into value for citizens, businesses, and public administrations," Gola explained.
The Open Fiber project for a fits into this direction edge data center network at our points of presence: “With this in mind, we are working to build a network of edge data centers at our points of presence: distributed infrastructures, close to the territories and places where data is generated, which will allow us to offer computational capacity closer to users, improve the quality of services, and contribute to more efficient data and energy management.”
The model looks at a less centralized network and more rooted in the territoriesA choice that could become strategic in the era of artificial intelligence, where response times, reliability, and proximity of computing power are crucial elements for enabling advanced applications.
Energy, public administration, and digital healthcare
Fiber, Gola emphasized, is not only a technological enabler but also a more sustainable infrastructure. "Furthermore, fiber is anstructurally sustainable infrastructure: if in Italy it were possible to completely replace legacy networks with optical fiber, the energy consumption of the network infrastructure could be reduced by approximately 86%, with an estimated benefit of around one billion euros per year”. The contribution of fiber, however, it is not limited to saving energy on the network"Fiber also enables smarter, real-time management of energy distribution," Gola continued, noting that the Open Fiber network "connects approximately 30.000 electrical substations and 24.000 public administration offices, including in the small municipalities covered by the BUL Plan."
It is precisely in these territories that fiber can make the differenceWhere the market alone would not have been able to reach, public intervention has brought connectivity and enabled essential services: schools, municipal offices, rural pharmacies. The latter, in the vision outlined by Gola, can become "fundamental facilities for diagnostics and, ultimately, for digital health applications supported by artificial intelligence."
AI doesn't just live in servers and algorithms. It also lives in the networks that allow data to move, in the territories reached by connectivity and in the ability to transform digital infrastructure into real services. "Without fiber," is the gist of Gola's speech, the AI revolution risks being left unfinished.
