Cloud computing is a primary driver of modern technological advancements. However, as cloud services adoption continues to soar, so does a concern for their environmental impact. The further expansion of cloud infrastructure will demand more energy, which means the need for sustainable solutions has never been more acute.

Due to their scale, cloud vendors operating large data centers have a greater impact on minimizing the IT’s industry overall carbon footprint than do smaller on-premises deployments. In this article, we highlight the main benefits of migrating business operations to the large-scale cloud providers known for their established sustainable practices, and point to useful resources.

Follow the Leaders

Major cloud platforms, including Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, have pledged to achieve net-zero carbon emissions in their data centers by 2030. These platforms are well-positioned to lead the adoption of sustainability principles in cloud engineering due to their reputation and global reach.

Microsoft’s study on the carbon benefits of cloud computing showed that an enterprise could reduce its carbon footprint by up to 98% by migrating to Microsoft Cloud, compared to running its IT operations in the on-premises data center.

As for Google Cloud, all of its cloud products are carbon neutral. Google achieves this by purchasing renewable energy to reduce the carbon footprint from operations performed on its infrastructure, as well as by using high-quality carbon credits to compensate for its remaining carbon emissions.

By moving your operations to the cloud and focusing on developing cloud-based applications, you can contribute to sustainable business practices and overall carbon footprint reduction.

Increase Energy Efficiency

Public cloud platforms rely on large-scale data centers with advanced infrastructure technologies. That allows them to reduce electricity consumption for overhead tasks such as lighting, cooling, and power conditioning. For example, according to Google’s environmental report, its data centers consume half the energy needed to power an average on-site data center.

Energy efficiency is also driven by higher server utilization rates and the ability to manage workloads flexibly. These are the main factors that allowed AWS to make its data centers 3.6 times more energy efficient than a median data center run by a U.S. company.

Additionally, the innovative approach applied to server architecture design in large data centers enables cloud service providers to develop custom hardware optimized for their customers’ workloads.

Big Names are Committed to Sustainable Software Development Practices

Another environmental benefit of running IT operations in the cloud is that public cloud platforms are committed to sustainable software engineering – and they want to make it feasible for anyone who uses their platforms.

Green (or sustainable) software starts at the design phase, considering carbon emissions as a project requirement. According to the Green Software Foundation, sustainable software applications are carbon efficient (can run on fewer machines and resources), energy efficient (require less energy to perform the same tasks), carbon aware (prioritize renewable energy sources as a power source) and hardware efficient (use less hardware).

IT operational efficiency is a fundamental of sustainable software engineering. Since cloud service providers already apply advanced technology to improve the energy and hardware efficiency of their infrastructure, cloud migration is a good start for supporting green coding.

Microsoft developed eight principles of sustainable software development for engineers to follow when they build, design, and deploy applications. You can apply these principles to all types of applications, whether deployed on-premise or in the cloud.

Amazon released a sustainable architecture guide with strategies for applying sustainability practices to optimize AWS infrastructure compute, storage and network layers. AWS also provides guidance on applying environmental best practices for designing and operating workloads in the cloud.

A Tools Roundup for Measuring and Reporting Carbon Emissions

In addition to implementing sustainability practices in their business operations, cloud platforms offer clients tools to monitor and measure carbon emissions linked to cloud service usage and report their overall carbon footprint following greenhouse gas protocol standards.

Google Cloud provides users with an emissions calculator. Using Carbon Footprint, you can track the emissions from running your applications. The tool lets you view and analyze data related to gross carbon emissions and use derived insights in emissions reports.

AWS also offers the Customer Carbon Footprint Tool for emissions tracking. You can calculate their carbon emissions associated with using AWS services, track emissions after migrating to the cloud, and use the data for sustainability reporting purposes.

Microsoft customers can access the Emissions Impact Dashboard to estimate their carbon footprint related to Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 cloud services. Microsoft also offers Cloud for Sustainability for tracking and managing carbon emissions. It gives you visibility into your organization’s environmental impact, aggregates data from various sources, and offers practical recommendations for reducing a carbon footprint.

Energizing Thoughts

Achieving “net zero” is not solely the responsibility of large-scale cloud providers. Businesses must also contribute. Itransition’s cloud consultants believe that if more companies move their IT operations from on-premises servers to the public cloud, overall energy consumption and related carbon footprint will decrease.

By leveraging renewable energy sources, optimizing infrastructure for energy efficiency and employing innovative technologies, these leading cloud platforms can attract a cohort of environmentally conscious clients. Those users may consider switching to the cloud not only for direct business benefits but also to make their operations more sustainable.

Photo credit: Aimable Mugabo on Unsplash