Cloud-native networks may help operators minimize energy use, reduce carbon footprints and lower costs
Cloud-native architectures are reshaping telecom networks, often spotlighted for their agility, speed to market and operational flexibility. But they also deliver another vital, often overlooked benefit: Cloud-native networks help operators build greener, leaner infrastructures that minimize energy use, reduce carbon footprints and lower costs. Here’s why.
Dynamic scaling eliminates waste
Legacy networks were designed to handle peak demand, so operators had to over-provision hardware — running infrastructure at full tilt even when traffic was low. This led to unnecessary energy consumption and higher carbon emissions.
Cloud-native networks scale resources up or down automatically in response to real-time demand. Dish Network illustrates this advantage. “We don’t keep things around for no good reason. Our carbon footprint stays very small… our energy footprint and carbon footprint very closely mirror our actual demand at the very moment,” Boost Mobile CTO Eben Albertyn told RCR Wireless News. By scaling down during off-peak periods, Dish avoids waste and cuts both costs and emissions.
Cloud-native design reduces hardware needs
Cloud-native functions (CNFs) are lightweight, containerized and designed to run efficiently on modern cloud platforms. This reduces the need for bulky, power-hungry physical infrastructure.
Boost Mobile shows how this plays out. Running its network on AWS, Boost dynamically scales resources and returns what it doesn’t need. “All I do is tell Amazon: you can have the hardware back. I don’t need it anymore. This means that my network grows and shrinks exactly based on the traffic,” said Albertyn. After moving to a cloud-native 5G Voice Core, Boost reduced its infrastructure footprint by more than 90% — lowering electricity use, cooling requirements and operational costs.
Public cloud partnerships amplify efficiency
Public cloud providers operate some of the most energy-optimized data centers in the world, with advanced cooling, power management and growing use of renewable energy. By partnering with hyperscalers, telcos can tap into these efficiencies without needing to build them in-house.
Operators like Boost, AT&T and Telefonica have reduced their own data center footprints and environmental impact by migrating workloads to public clouds — gaining elasticity, lower emissions and cost savings in one move.
Self-healing systems prevent unnecessary resource use
Cloud-native networks, managed through platforms like Kubernetes, offer built-in self-healing. When failures occur, these systems automatically restart or reschedule workloads without human intervention. This minimizes the compute and energy waste that can come from prolonged disruptions or inefficient manual recovery processes.
As Spirent’s Principal Product Manager of Cloud-Native 5G Deployment Validation Bill Clark explained: CNFs self-healing capabilities ensure that only healthy instances handle network traffic, keeping systems efficient and aligned with demand — while avoiding the waste tied to downtime.
Automation streamlines operations and reduces waste
Cloud-native telecom embraces DevOps and CI/CD to automate software updates, testing and deployments. Put another way: DevOps brings development and operations teams together to automate the network lifecycle, while CI/CD is the practical execution of this strategy.
CI/CD introduces automation across the entire software lifecycle, from testing to deployment. Its continuous, automated nature helps operators deliver software faster, more reliably and more efficiently. This minimizes the need for physical interventions, reduces error and avoids unnecessary hardware use or overprovisioning.
“Our hardware network is actually just one big piece of software. And so it behaves like software, which means it is integrated into CI/CD pipelines,” said Albertyn. This automation means changes can be made quickly and precisely, shrinking resource use and supporting continuous optimization.
Beyond the much-touted agility and scalability of cloud-native networks, is the promise of greener, leaner telecom operations. By enabling dynamic scaling, reducing hardware, leveraging public cloud efficiency, self-healing from disruptions and automating operations, cloud-native architecture aligns environmental sustainability with business goals.
As operators look toward 6G and beyond, these benefits will only become more critical. In a world where connectivity must balance network quality, cost and carbon, cloud-native networks offer a smarter, cleaner path forward.
