Over the past four decades, three technological pillars: control, compute, and connectivity have each undergone their own cycles of architectural transformation. They began as monolithic, centralized domains, evolved into distributed and composable systems, and are now entering a deeper phase of convergence. This convergence is not merely the co-location of functions or a tighter coupling of subsystems; it is a structural shift in how intelligence is produced, distributed, and coordinated. Today, artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer confined to a model running in the cloud, computation is no longer anchored in fixed data centers, and connectivity is no longer a passive transport utility. They are becoming facets of a single, integrated fabric: an AI-native network that perceives, reasons, and acts. This article traces the long arc of that evolution, explains the forces driving distributed convergence, introduces the emerging Semantic Layer that transforms cognition into comprehension, and examines how the rise of agentic devices and the “post-phone era” will reshape the Internet’s architecture for decades to come.
1 Three Pillars, One Trajectory
Every major shift in networked systems can be traced to the interaction of three fundamental capabilities: how we control systems, how we compute, and how we connect. Although they are often discussed as independent domains—AI, cloud, and connectivity—they have always evolved in parallel, influencing and sometimes constraining one another. A key difference now is the cadence and the coupling. All three domains are accelerating at once, and their interactions are no longer optional engineering choices; they are structural dependencies of the next generation of digital infrastructure.
To understand where we are headed, it is useful to remember where each domain began. In the early 1980s, control systems were symbolic and rule-based, compute was built around centralized mainframes, and connectivity relied on circuit-switched networks designed for voice. None of these systems could have anticipated the scale, dynamism, or autonomy required today. Yet each domain, through its own evolutionary arc, has moved from monolithic to modular, from fixed to programmable, from reactive to adaptive.
This story is part of a paid subscription. Please subscribe for immediate access.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Vinton G. Cerf is Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google. Widely known as one of the “Fathers of the Internet,” Cerf is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet. For his pioneering work in this field as well as for his inspired leadership, Cerf received the A.M. Turning Award, the highest honor in computer science, in 2004.
At Google, Cerf is responsible for identifying new enabling technologies to support the development of advanced, Internet-based products and services. Cerf is also Chairman of the Internet Ecosystem Innovation Committee (IEIC), which is an independent committee that promotes Internet diversity forming global Internet nexus points, and one of global industry leaders honored in the inaugural InterGlobix Magazine Titans List.
Cerf is former Senior Vice President of Technology Strategy for MCI Communications Corporation, where he was responsible for guiding corporate strategy development from the technical perspective. Previously, Cerf served as MCI’s Senior Vice President of Architecture and Technology, where he led a team of architects and engineers to design advanced networking frameworks, including Internet-based solutions for delivering a combination of data, information, voice, and video services for business and consumer use. He also previously served as Chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the group that oversees the Internet’s growth and expansion, and Founding President of the Internet Society.
Dr. Mallik Tatipamula is CTO at Ericsson, Silicon Valley, with a distinguished 35-year career spanning Nortel, Motorola, Cisco, Juniper, F5 Networks, and Ericsson. He has made fundamental contributions at the intersection of communications and networking, shaping the evolution of telecom networks from 2G to 5G and beyond. He has held visiting professorships at King’s College London, the University of Glasgow, and the University of Edinburgh, strengthening ties between research and practice.
Tatipamula served as an advisor to several start-ups, including Pensando (Acquired by AMD for $1.9B). He has co-authored two books, published over 100 papers and patents, and delivered over 500 keynote and panel presentations. He has been elected to five national academies, including as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). His global honors include three honorary doctorates, the IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Industry Leader Award, Silicon Valley Business Journal CTO of the Year, and induction into the IPv6 Hall of Fame, among others.
