Cloud computing and carbon neutrality

As a multidisciplinary aspect, sustainability draws from many areas including information technology (IT). It is an area that is at the heart of the survival of our planet, with every individual having a responsibility to reduce their carbon footprint in a significant way if the future of our earth is to be safeguarded.

Information, communication, and technology (ICT) is leading the way with a lot of trends already on the right path. Efforts to reduce toxic materials from electronic waste such as phones and computers are at high gear as businesses and individuals come up with recycling and reuse measures.

Likewise, the promotion of energy-efficient technologies and the introduction of ratings and credits from utilities, point in the right direction. The biggest of all but the least recognised is cloud computing.
Businesses and individuals see it as an answer for storage in the big data era.

In addition, it is a solution to a host of environmental issues that the world is facing today. As an ultimate sharing model, it reduces the need for commuting and raises the bar for the effective utilisation of resources.

Data centres and carbon neutrality

Data centres have been the leaders in sustainability efforts. Their operations point at a sector that is geared towards ensuring that the current generation does not compromise the capacity of the future generation to enjoy this. They have been promoting the efficient use of resources, and low carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions, and their efforts to improve human welfare are visible. Their state-of-art cooling systems extensively utilise renewable; they are at the forefront in the utilisation of the latest green technologies and they have stayed up-to-date on effective means of waste management. These entities are well aware of the benefits of sustainability. For data centres, achieving carbon neutrality makes great business sense alongside being ethical.

Cloud computing migration

Migration to cloud computing has enormous benefits. Studies have shown that moving emails, productivity tools and customer relations management capabilities to the cloud can lead to energy savings by a significant margin. Data centres are known for their great demand for energy, where they are estimated to account for a significant proportion of overall electricity consumption in most countries, especially in the developed world. Projections that have been done by various researchers show that by 2030, energy usage in data centres may reach eight per cent (8%) by the year 2030 with the figure rising to fourteen per cent (14%) ten years later.

Given the increasing demand for digital transformation and cloud computing, caution is needed as we move forward. ICT sector may consume a lot of energy but it is helping in the replacement of power-hungry activities and at the same time assisting in designing a greener future. With digitisation, benefits such as less travel, reduced numbers of combustion engines, and ultimately less reliance on fossil fuels are derived. Cloud computing will be at the heart of the supercomputing efforts to address sustainability issues. Forecasts show that cloud computing will help in the reduction of billions of tons of carbon within the next few years.

Although cloud computing is just a part of what needs to be done to protect the earth, its efforts are helping a great deal with this journey. First, by the actual reduction of the destructive habits, and second by leading the way and being a good example through which others can learn. Proper use of the cloud for digital needs, yields business greater productivity benefits, helps in reducing costs, and assists a business in becoming a carbon-neutral entity, eventually boosting its corporate stand and the brand becoming more attractive.