The dark side of cloud computing: soaring carbon emissions | Environment. A server farm in San Jose, California, holding some of the near 500bn GB of data on the internet. Photograph: Bob Sacha/Corbis While the ash cloud from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano expanded for a relatively short time over Europe and then slowly disappeared, another cloud, this one unseen, is rising steadily over the entire world. Digital waste has grown exponentially over the last decade as storage of data — such as e-mails, pictures, audio and video files, etc. — has shifted to the online sphere.
The advent of web services that allow users to upload files has made it possible to leave behind (most likely in landfills) tapes and discs and instead throw all of our recorded information into one big digital cloud of computers. Cloud computing refers to today's predominant infrastructure and business model whereby information, software and other resources are delivered on-demand to users via the Internet. But the Internet saves energy, right? However, things turned out differently. The Big Picture – Google Green.
Our data centers are some of the most efficient in the world. Specifically, our data centers use only 50% of the energy of most other data centers. In addition to reducing our impact on the environment, our efficient data center designs have saved us over a billion dollars to date. In fact, according to an independent study, Google uses very little of the world's electricity (less than 0.01%). Additionally, we're the first major Internet services company to gain external certification of our high environmental and energy management standards throughout our data centers. Data center electricity consumption Google uses a very small portion of global electricity. More info on Google's data centers Best practices There are many simple design choices that you can apply to both small and large data centers to improve the efficiency of the facility.
Measuring PUE The first step to improving a data center's efficiency is measuring it. More info on measuring PUE Managing airflow Utilize free cooling. Is cloud computing green? Yes! And, err, no. By Richi Jennings (@richi ) - October 7, 2011. Does cloud computing actually save energy? Would moving some of your data center workload to the cloud reduce your greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions? A survey held at an event I recently attended indicated that most CIOs and other senior IT people doubted it. Based on this survey -- admittedly an unscientific one -- the industry has a big challenge ahead to convince the market of cloud computing's energy benefits.
What's the reality? If you're not careful, you could even generate more GHG, or at least appear to. To continue reading, register here to become an Insider It's FREE to join. Cloud Computing's Hidden 'Green' Benefits. Booming data center electricity use slows | Green Tech. More efficient data centers and a slowing economy have put the brakes on the rapid growth of electricity use in data centers, according to a study released today.
In an analysis of data center energy consumption, researcher and Stanford University consulting professor Jonathan Koomey found electricity use grew about 36 percent in the U.S. from 2005 to 2010 and 56 percent globally. That pace is lower than the doubling of data center electricity use that happened from 2000 to 2005, he found. With the growth of cloud computing and data center-connected mobile devices, giant data centers are being built, causing concern over the amount of energy they draw. Koomey estimates that globally data centers consumed between 1.1 percent and 1.5 percent in 2010. The number in the U.S. is between 1.7 percent and 2.2 percent. Google uses less than 1 percent of the electricity used by data centers, a sign that its data centers are run relatively efficiently, according to Koomey.