Your business may be familiar with the oft-touted savings and scalability benefits of using cloud-based infrastructure and applications, but it also can significantly boost your organization’s sustainability initiatives.
Migrating from on-premises to cloud-based computing, or infrastructure as a service (IaaS), can reduce energy consumption by 65 percent and carbon emissions by 84 percent, according to 2020 research from Accenture. Cloud-driven efficiencies in cooling, power, hardware, utilization, etc., are behind these noteworthy environmental benefits.
If you’re interested in joining the growing ranks of companies going green, consider these five ways that adopting cloud infrastructure and applications can help:
1. Energy Efficiency — As noted, migrating to cloud-based technology reduces the energy consumed and emissions generated by your company’s technology use. This is partly because you’re no longer supporting infrastructure and apps on hardware dedicated to your company and likely not fully utilized. With cloud technology, you share the infrastructure with other subscribers for greater utilization and efficiency. Additionally, cloud service providers leverage advanced cooling systems and power management techniques that help drive greater energy efficiency.
2. Virtualization — When your company uses cloud computing, you leverage virtualization technology to consolidate multiple physical servers into virtual machines running on a single physical server. A byproduct of virtualization is that it reduces the number of physical servers required, lowering the amount of energy needed to power and cool those servers, creating additional energy efficiencies.
3. Scalability — Because your infrastructure and applications are no longer tied to the physical hardware you own and you’re consuming them on a subscription basis, you can scale resources up or down quickly and easily based on demand. As a result, you’re no longer overprovisioning and wasting resources, which helps to reduce your environmental impact.
4. Reduced E-waste — Cloud services reduce or eliminate on-premises IT infrastructure, such as servers and storage devices. As a result, your business no longer has to replace and dispose of this equipment when it becomes obsolete, or your requirements change. While that decreases capital costs and management overhead, it also reduces the amount of electronic waste (e-waste) your company produces. This reduction, in turn, benefits the environment by shrinking the volume of toxic compounds such as lead, cadmium and beryllium released into our air and groundwater.
PRO TIP: Cloud computing also helps reduce high-tech trash like phones, laptops, and other devices, which can quickly reach the end of life as technology evolves. Desktop as a Service (DaaS) enables any device to access user desktops and applications in the cloud, so you don’t have to replace these devices to support new capabilities.
5. Remote Work — The cloud’s positive environmental impact extends beyond its architecture and consumption model. Cloud-based applications enable your team to work and collaborate remotely from home, which reduces the need for commuting and travel, lowering carbon emissions associated with transportation and decreasing the environmental impact of business travel.
Choosing an Environmentally Conscious Cloud Service Provider
In addition to its overarching benefits, you can maximize the impact of using the cloud by working with companies that are using sustainable practices, such as:
- Renewable Energy — Using wind, solar, and water to power data centers reduces reliance on fossil fuels and decreases greenhouse gas emissions.
- Resource Optimization — Advanced monitoring and management tools can optimize the use of resources such as energy, water, and materials to eliminate waste and reduce environmental impact.
- Green Computing — Deploying energy-efficient hardware and optimizing software to reduce resource usage are among green computing practices.
- Reusing & Recycling —Reusing or repurposing retired hardware, deploying recycled hardware, and designing products for reuse and recycling support “circular economy” principles.
Adopting cloud infrastructure and applications can help optimize your resources, reduce your environmental impact, and demonstrate your commitment to social responsibility and sustainability.
