How „green”is the cloud?

Below are five facts about why cloud computing is considered as a more sustainable solution than using traditional data centres.

The first fact that shows cloud computing is sustainable is that data centres, based on a 2020 study account for 1-2% of total global electricity consumption. What is interesting here, that this number has remained unchanged since 2010 even though the number of data centres and the size of the workloads running on them around the world has increased dramatically. This data suggests that the energy efficiency has increased over time that can be pared with moving workloads to the cloud.

Secondly, it also emphasises clouds’ sustainability that the carbon footprint of cloud services will be one of the most important criteria that businesses consider when choosing a cloud platform.

Another reason is that big cloud market leaders such as Microsoft have committed to reducing their carbon footprint. On the other hand, the first step they often take is buying carbon offsets, which has not the same greening effect as reducing carbon emissions by cutting greenhouse-gas emissions.

It is positive however that companies such as Microsoft or Amazon are preparing to ensure the electricity for their operations from renewable electricity instead of the traditional by 2025-2030, that is the fourth fact for cloud systems sustainability. And finally, the fifth fact is that cloud-native technologies of which the number one place is the cloud can result in a lower energy consumption than the one of traditional technologies. All in all, while the cloud does not have a perfect sustainability record, most data suggests that overall cloud workloads are more environmentally friendly than workflows running in traditional data centres.