March 24, 2021

How Cloud Computing is Green Technology

You might be helping to save the planet by using cloud computing, experts say.

Google has developed a metric that shows how clean the company’s cloud regions are around the world. Shifting to cloud computing could slow the growing problem of computing pollution.

“Reduced power consumption and emissions means we’re basically doing more with less,” David Linthicum, the chief cloud strategy officer of Deloitte Consulting, said in an email interview.

Linthicum added that cloud computing is more efficient than using computers on site. “Aggregated computing and storage resources are motivating enterprises to move from discrete corporate data centers to better utilized and shared resources in public clouds,” he said. 

Measuring Clean Energy

Google calls its new metric the Carbon-Free Energy percentage (CFE%). The number shows the average mix of carbon-free and fossil-fuel energy used to power Google’s data centers.

The company calculates CFE% for every region based on how much carbon-free energy was produced on the local grid at a specific time. And the company’s numbers show the cloud is cleaner. Read rest here