No matter how progressive data-based demands have been, it seems to be undeniable that they have come at the cost of increased energy consumption. In the last few years, it’s believed that the technology sector’s growing carbon footprint has been a subject of intense discussions. Market reports have shown that information technology (IT) corporations constitute roughly four percent of global carbon emissions. To counter that, cloud computing has seemingly emerged as a sustainable way to curb energy consumption over traditional data-intensive applications. “I think cloud computing maximises resource use and lowers carbon emissions. It can reduce the carbon footprint of an organisation by lowering emissions and boosting the usage of renewable energy. When compared to on-premises data centres, the findings of a Microsoft study have shown that cloud computing has the potential to reduce energy use and carbon emissions. Cloud providers move workloads onto shared infrastructure so that businesses don’t have to run their own servers, which lowers energy usage overall,” Jesintha Louis, CEO, G7 CR Technologies, A Noventiq Company, told FE TransformX.
From what it’s understood, enterprises have increased the need to set better environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals to ensure investors’ backing. Based on how things stand, important factors behind cloud computing-backed decarbonisation include high energy costs related to global events, such as the Russia-Ukraine crisis, willingness of consumer-based investments towards ESG-oriented products and services, and formulating plans for rigorous ESG reporting needs. Data provided by the International Energy Agency (IEA), an autonomous intergovernmental organisation, found that 2020 recorded international data centre electricity consumption of around 200-250 Terawatt hours (TWh), which constituted one percent of worldwide final electricity consumption, exclusive of 100 TWh of crypto mining along with electricity directed towards technology applications such as phones and laptops. The organisation also specified how international Internet traffic sustained an over 40% rise in 2020. According to market research, cloud computing provides advantages to function above traditional data methodologies, such as segregation of storage and servers among different users, a reported 98% fall in carbon emissions, and a reduction in infrastructure expenses. As far as corporations are concerned, there has seemingly been an upward trend in the integration of cloud computing techniques. Insights from ISG’s 2022 Index Research stated that annual contract value related to Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) increased by over 50% on a year-on-year basis. Furthermore, cloud computing’s integration can lead to a 90% downfall in energy consumption in terms of small-scale deployments, in comparison to on-premise infrastructure models.
“I believe consolidating data centres and moving to a centralised cloud storage environment can improve server utilisation, reducing the number of servers required, resulting in lower energy consumption and carbon emissions. Data compression can reduce the amount of data that needs to be stored and transferred, which can reduce the energy required to store and transfer the data, resulting in lower carbon emissions. By migrating to the cloud, organisations can reduce their carbon footprint and benefit from the sustainability of large-scale data centres that host cloud services, such as Azure, AWS, GCP, OCI, which are designed to be energy-efficient,” Adrian Clayburn, India head – product centric services, Insight Enterprises, a global technology company, mentioned.
According to a Microsoft Cloud Carbon Study, transitioning workloads to Microsoft Azure can create up to 98% more carbon efficiency and up to 93% more energy efficiency than on-premises options, depending on specific server usage, renewable energy purchases made, and other factors. Another Microsoft report on the carbon benefits of cloud computing highlighted that the Microsoft Cloud stands at 22-93% more energy efficient in comparison to traditional enterprise data centres and at 72-98% more carbon efficient in terms of renewable energy purchases. Reportedly, for Amazon Web Services (AWS), a cloud computing company, the functioning of business applications could lead to an 80% fall in energy usage and a 96% reduction in carbon emissions when AWS purchases 100% of its energy from renewable sources, and for Google, data centres are two times more energy efficient in comparison to an enterprise data centre. As per Mordor Intelligence, a market intelligence and advisory firm, the global cloud security market in energy is anticipated to reach $1.36 billion in 2024 and $2.19 billion by 2029, at a 10% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for 2024-29. For 2024, Gartner, a technological research and consulting firm, has predicted that cloud computing will constitute over 45% of IT spending on infrastructure software, business process outsourcing, system infrastructure, and application software. A recent report by Deloitte, a professional services network, has quoted that 83% of energy and utility companies either utilise cloud services or would be willing to do so in the next two years.
“The future of cloud computing in environmental sustainability seems to point towards integration of renewable energy sources, the development of energy-efficient computing technologies, and the creation of smarter AI-driven data centres that can reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. Innovations in battery storage and energy grid management may also allow data centres to store renewable energy efficiently, making them less dependent on fossil fuels. Additionally, the emergence of edge computing could reduce the distance data needs to travel, thereby decreasing energy use and latency. The digital revolution, characterised by advances in AI, IoT (Internet of Things), and big data, will likely play a role in enhancing environmental sustainability,” Shashank Donthi, CEO, Hynetic Electronics, a hardware and software solutions company, concluded.
