Energy-efficient Capability of Cloud Computing

In the corporate world, the jargon that is making waves among business managers is “energy efficiency”. In other words, business executives are actively searching for ways to reduce or minimize their consumption of energy. This single desire is in tandem with the idea of saving our planet through the use of green energy that will not endanger the human population. So, here is the good news: Cloud computing can eventually help companies to save on the cost of energy according to the following processes highlighted below. In the words of Urs Holzle, Google’s Senior Vice President for technical infrastructure, “Google’s servers refresh 20 billion pages a day, process over 100 billion search queries a month, provide email for 425 million Gmail users and process 72 hours of video uploaded per minute to YouTube. And yet we’re able to do all that work with relatively little energy, compared to other industries.” He stated that data centers, including Google’s utilize only between 1.1 and 1.3 percent of global energy, compared to transportation industry which gulped about 25 percent of the world’s energy. The ability to save energy is attributed to the practice of moving to the cloud by small and medium-sized businesses, including some Governmental agencies. Check out this interesting statistics: Holzle explained that a report produced by Carbon Disclosure Project authoritatively confirmed that cloud computing can help companies save on their energy expense to the tune of $12.3 billion by 2020. Interestingly, it is also believed that about 85.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide will be saved during the same period. Nothing more can prove the energy-efficiency capability of cloud technology than the robust figures described above, and this trend is expected to continue as more and more businesses move their IT structures to the cloud. A typical example of a governmental agency that has gained immensely from using cloud computing is U.S. General Services Administration. The agency has cut the rate of servers’ energy consumption by a whopping 90 percent and drastically reduced its carbon emissions by 85 percent. In financial terms, the agency has been able to save a total of $285,000 every year on its energy costs. Running in-house IT structure, as research shows, consumes a lot of energy. Sometimes companies will have to set up alternative energy sources in order to guarantee uninterrupted services or operations. Hence, the headache of going into alternative power generation can as well be turned over to cloud computing service providers, who will make sure their clients’ business operations are not affected by unexpected power outage. Apart from providing enviable protection to clients’ data and information, cloud computing also gives business managers the opportunity to diversify and innovate. This is because they do not need to worry about maintaining in-house IT infrastructure and personnel anymore; their attention can now be completely centered on how to develop their businesses for greater profitability and continuity. Business administrators stand to gain much by experimenting with cloud computing, meaning they need to make this wise decision in order to save on their energy costs, personnel expenses and data-protection procedures. For the fact that cloud computing encourages eco-friendly business practices, there is every possibility that to protect our earth, businesses will have to completely switch their IT systems to the cloud to contribute to the current anti-global warming activities going on in almost every corner of the globe. The dream of every business owner is to cut the costs of running his or her business with the expectation of maximizing his/her profitability. Cloud computing does not only guarantee more profits, it also engenders a better environmental condition that is good for both human players, governmental agencies and other stakeholders in the habit of saving our world from pollution and degradation.

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Our articles are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.   About the Guest Author: Jerry Olasakinju, a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) degree holder, is a passionate researcher and writer whose interest in everything computing is unparalleled. He blogs about his literary works at http://jerryolasakinju.blogspot.jp/