The need to “go green”, in today’s modern world, is more pressing than ever. Cloud computing and the internet are contributing to large carbon emissions. Major IT companies have realized this and are now switching their data centers to renewable energy sources. Amazon, Google and Facebook are just some of the companies that have taken great steps to make their company more environmentally friendly.

Cloud computing is all the rage. Companies have discovered that switching to a public cloud can give them more flexibility, scalability, and lower costs. The cloud is not just good for their company, it’s also good for the environment. Carbon emissions are greatly increased by processing and managing data on local servers.

Cloud computing can dramatically reduce energy consumption, greenhouse gas (GHG), and waste. Microsoft Corporation and WSP Global Inc. claim that cloud computing is 93% less energy-efficient than traditional datacenters and emits 98% less greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This article focuses on the four environmental benefits that cloud computing offers.

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1. Reduced Energy Consumption

As energy costs rise, so is the concern about how much energy you use in your on-premises datacenters. A cooling system is essential to avoid the processors overheating.

Energy Innovation estimates that servers and cooling systems account 86% for electricity consumption in datacenters. Storage drives (11%), and network devices (3%) are close behind. You must also dispose of equipment after their useful life is up. This adds to the problem of e-waste.

Cloud computing is a great way to reduce energy consumption. A collaboration between Berkeley Lab and Northwestern University, funded by Google, has shown that cloud computing can reduce energy consumption by an astounding 87%. According to the report, Los Angeles could be powered by the energy saved for up to a year. According to the survey, organizations can save anywhere from 60% to 85% on energy costs by switching to cloud-based services.

In recent years, we have seen the rise in hyperscale datacenters. This has resulted in lower power consumption (PUE). Synergy Research Group’s new data shows that there are now more than 600 hyperscale data centers globally. This is nearly twice the number of datacenters since 2015. Hyperscale datacenters can be costly investments for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), despite their energy efficiency.

The Synergy research Group report shows, for example that Amazon and Google were responsible for more than half the new hyperscale datacenters that were launched in 2020. Because they are able to consolidate server usage and operate at higher utilization levels than SMBs, large cloud providers can afford hyperscale facilities.

SMBs are unable to achieve higher utilization rates in hyperscale datacenters so they must use cloud-based services.

2. Reduce carbon emissions

Datacenters are often large, resource-consuming, and heat-generating plants. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), datacenters consume 200 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity. This represents 0.3% of global GHG emissions and a mere 1% of global electricity demand.

Datacenters will be responsible for more 14% global GHG emissions by 2040. Datacenters are extremely energy-intensive because they operate seven days a week, 24 hours a year. More than 40% electricity used in datacenters is spent cooling servers and IT equipment.

Cloud computing can reduce carbon emissions by reducing energy consumption and energy requirements. Cloud computing can reduce GHG emissions by consolidating discrete datacenters to large-scale facilities that efficiently manage and manage energy. Cloud computing can reduce energy waste by optimizing the physical environment (think cloud computing facilities located in cold climates), and reducing the amount of power required to cool servers.

A joint study by Accenture and Microsoft Corporation shows that cloud computing has the potential to significantly reduce GHG emissions. This study shows that large corporations can reduce their per-user carbon footprint by 30% while SMBs can lower their per-user carbon by as much as 90%.

An IDC study also found that cloud computing should be adopted by companies between 2021-2024 to reduce 629 millions metric tons of GHG emission. IDC also notes that there could be 1.6 billion metric tonnes of GHG emissions saved if all datacenters used in 2024 were designed for sustainability.

3. Uses of virtualization to promote sustainability

Although cost savings and improved efficiency in business operations are two of the most important benefits of virtualization they aren’t the only ones. Virtualization is used in cloud computing to improve environmental sustainability.

The virtualization technology allows an organization to create multiple virtual machines and run multiple apps on the same physical server through a hypervisor. Virtualization allows high-carbon machines to be replaced by their virtual counterparts.

An organization could, for example, stream videos from one VM and not from a large number of servers. This could reduce power consumption and carbon footprint. The cloud can be used to replace an existing IT infrastructure on your premises. This type of server uses less power and has a potential lower environmental impact.

Cloud computing reduces hardware and helps to eliminate wastes from IT equipment disposal (e-waste). Cloud computing is also a great way for organizations to go paperless. Cloud-based services like DocuSign make it possible to sign documents electronically. This is possible in just a few clicks.

Cloud-based services like Dropbox or Google Drive allow you to securely store your paper documents. You can reduce the amount of paper documents you need to store or dispose of that have a negative impact on the environment by going paperless.

The most important thing is that virtual desktop infrastructure solutions like Parallels(r), Remote Application Server (RAS), eliminate the need for employees to travel to their offices. This reduces GHG emissions as workers no longer use their cars.

4. Renewable Resources and Energy Efficiency – Increased Efficiency

Cloud computing is based on the principle that services can be shared over a network to maximize their effectiveness. A cloud facility that provides Hawaii users with a particular service (e.g. web server) during Hawaii business hours could be moved to Europe with a different application during European business hours.

Cloud services have a higher efficiency than on-premises datacenters. Cloud computing has a positive impact on the environment because it makes use of IT resources efficiently. Cloud computing must be energy efficient as more data-intensive technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), and distributed manufacturing systems are developed.

Modern datacenters use advanced technology to reduce wastage at all levels of operations. Today’s datacenters employ machine learning to optimize cooling. Datacenters use machine learning to optimize their cooling environments.

Cloud providers’ technological innovations have reduced carbon emissions. According to 451 Research, Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) infrastructure is almost four times more efficient than datacenters on-premises. The survey revealed that AWS uses advanced technologies to achieve this advantage.

To reduce their carbon footprint, some datacenters also use renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and geothermal. Apple (Maiden), North Carolina), Google, (Hamina Finland), Hewlett-Packard, Wynyard, United Kingdom), Microsoft, (Cheyenne), Wyoming), and Facebook, (Lulea Sweden) are all prime examples of datacenters that use renewable energy sources.

5. Hardware Refresh Speed

Because of the high cost and time required to upgrade servers, traditional Data Center hardware is often used for a long time before being replaced or upgraded. Public cloud hardware tends to be more utilized than traditional servers. This means that it will likely have a shorter lifespan which allows for faster refresh times. Public cloud servers are also cheaper to upgrade because of the new technology’s improved energy efficiency. Public cloud providers will save significantly on energy costs by using more efficient hardware.