Study Paints Cloud with Green Brush
According to a new report from Harvard and Reading University, cloud computing is up to 95 percent more energy-efficient than on-site computing. The findings released Thursday show how a shift from on-site computing to a shared cloud model offers significant greenhouse gas abatement via reduced energy consumption.
The study, sponsored by Microsoft Europe and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), focused on how cloud computing could benefit 11 different countries: Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Indonesia, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and the UK.
By switching over to cloud-based email, customer relationship management, and groupware solutions, the researchers identified tremendous energy-savings potential. To wit: If 80 percent of the organizations in the target countries were switched over to these cloud-based services, they would save 11.2 TWh (11.2 trillion kilowatt-hours) of energy every year, an action that is equivalent to taking 1.7 million cars off the road.
Head researcher Dr. Peter Thomond stated, "The findings show, contrary to the perception of power hungry data centres, that the energy efficiency of cloud infrastructure and its 'embedded carbon' outperform on-site services by an order of magnitude. This is only 3 cloud applications, there are hundreds more."
According to Luis Neves, GeSI Chairman, an earlier report published by GeSI (SMARTer2020) found that large-scale systems-enabled broadband and information and communication technologies could also assist in the move to greater sustainability. The SMARTer2020 study concluded that by 2020 these types of technologies could help save up to $1.9 trillion as well as drop greenhouse gas emissions a whopping 16.5 percent worldwide.
"GeSI has taken a strong commitment to demonstrate the enabling potential of cloud computing in how it can tackle the difficult issue of climate change and boost economies," Neves adds. "This GeSI-supported study on the carbon abatement potential of cloud computing offers the first academically rigorous and industrially relevant study of its kind. We are pleased to contribute to the growing body of evidence that demonstrates how information and communication technologies are key enablers of the transition to a low-carbon economy."
Evidence for cloud's green potential is piling up. Earlier this month, researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Northwestern released a report that showed mass migration to cloud-based business tools could save 23 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, enough to power the city of Los Angeles for a year.
