Explained: What is Green Cloud Computing and how will it help us in reducing carbon footprint?
Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery and distribution of computing services over the Internet such as applications to storage to processing power on a ‘Pay as you go’ basis. It provides speedier innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale. Instead of owning computing infrastructure or data centres, organisations can rent access to apps and storage from a cloud service provider.
However, as the use of cloud computing grew, so did energy consumption. This rise in power consumption has resulted in a significant increase in carbon emissions in the atmosphere. The exponential growth of data servers and other infrastructure is causing a growth in energy usage. Hence, there is a need to reduce carbon emissions. This is where green cloud computing which would reduce energy consumption and carbon footprint for the environment comes into use. Let us find out more about it.
What is green cloud computing?
Green cloud computing is a technology that assures that all information technology operations and setups have a low carbon footprint. The expanding number of businesses around the world have a huge environmental impact. As a result of this expansion, there will be a greater demand for data centres, an increase in workers' daily commutes, and an influx of office equipment and supplies on a regular basis. Green cloud computing addresses these growing environmental challenges by providing choices for reducing global carbon footprints.
What are the objectives of green cloud computing?
The main goals of green cloud computing are to reduce the use of hazardous materials, improve product energy efficiency over its lifetime, and make better the recyclability or biodegradability of manufacturing waste. Continuous research is being conducted in key areas such as making PCs as energy-efficient as possible and designing methodologies and frameworks for desktop advancements that are related to effectiveness.
What are the features of a green data centre?
A green data centre consists of all sophisticated systems, such as low-power servers, modular data centres, free-air cooling systems, and waste heat re-use, that are created with efficient technologies to store and process data efficiently.
What are the advantages of green cloud computing?
Some of the advantages of green cloud computing are as follows:
Helps in reduction of carbon footprint
The concept of remote work was born as a result of cloud computing, which allows people to work from anywhere at any time. Fuel emissions and, as a result, environmental carbon footprints are decreasing as more individuals work from home. Users also need lesser infrastructure and save more energy as a result.
Aids in energy conservation
Organisations can lower their energy consumption by pooling resources and minimising the amount of data stored on-premises by using cloud technology. This will assist in lowering their electricity bills, while also promoting environmental conservation.
Users can go paperless
In the cloud, data can be safely kept. Users including organisations and individuals, benefit from cloud storage since it allows them to access documents at any time and from any location. Another significant advantage is that data is not lost, as is sometimes the case with hard discs in server rooms. As a result, this technology assists users in going paperless.