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Is IT really Greener in the Cloud?

By Adam Clamp

Regular Computanews contributor, Adam Clamp of the Green IT Company, reviews the ‘green’ arguments made by cloud computing.

Cloud computing is a key buzzword that arises whenever organisations talk about reducing the impact of their computer systems on the environment.  Computing consumes a lot of resources, from the materials used in constructing hardware, the energy required to power them and the cooling needed to reduce heat generated by computers.

With the number of computers in use predicted by Gartner to reach 2 billion units by 2014, surely it makes sense to reduce the environmental impact of computing by centralising computing power down from billions of PCs into a data centre or server farm? Or does it?

Factors to consider

However, it is not that straightforward and when analysing whether it is actually ‘greener’ to migrate your computer services to the cloud, there are many factors to first take into consideration.

• How are the servers powered?  Data centres are energy intensive, some are solar powered, some require their own sub-station
• Are they virtual servers?  Virtualising servers reduces the need for power hungry physical servers
• Are they energy efficient servers?  Some servers are more energy efficient and run at lower power than others
• Where in the world are they based?  Some countries will have stricter rules on green computing and energy efficiency
• Is the hardware ECO Compliant?  Look for server manufacturers who reduce the use of toxic materials in server construction

We’re also seeing a return to 1970's style ‘thin’ computing via a dumb terminal, in which the real computing power was done by a mainframe computer in the office basement – these days it’s now a datacentre located in Slough or the Nevada desert.  This model of computing can mean lower energy bills, reduced support costs, and better security.

The green cloud?

Personally I feel that a Cloud computing service is only going to be green if it powers itself from renewable energy sources.  If not, then I feel it can't really be classed as green.  To give two different approaches to green cloud computing:

• Google claims that 30-35% of its electricity is sourced from renewables and their own self generation schemes
• Rackspace won the Green IT award last year, but they only carbon offset and do not seem to buy energy from renewable sources or any of their own self generation energy schemes.

Offsetting simply means reducing carbon emissions in one place to compensate or offset an emission made elsewhere.  In my view, this does not mean changing things for the true benefit of the environment. 

It’s always worth looking beyond the marketing hype and finding out the real facts.  When Apple recently launched their iCloud service they said the datacentres were the “greenest” they could make them.  But how can we judge that for ourselves if Apple does not give details about how green their datacentres really are?

The only true green cloud service that we know of at present is provided by a company based in the states called aiso.net. All their services are 100% solar powered, along with hyper energy efficient servers.  You can’t get much greener than that.

Look beyond the hype

The chances are that Cloud computing will only prove more cost efficient if you are a larger user of IT systems as going into the cloud could mean reducing your required ground space and energy costs.  It is also true that cloud computing can open up the possibilities for it to become easier to work from home and taking into account the carbon emissions that can be saved on travel, providing desk space etc, this is one way the Cloud can make your operations a bit greener.

Although many companies seem to be implementing cloud services and claiming to be greener, make sure you look beyond the hype and ask the companies you are approaching about where their energy comes from and what makes their datacentre greener.  Remember, offsetting doesn’t make a service green – it’s just passing the problem to someone else.

Sources and further reading

• Just how green is cloud computing – Smartplanet
• How dirty is your data – A Look at the Energy Choices That Power Cloud Computing – a Greenpeace report (pdf, 1.4Mb)
• How Green is Apple’s iCloud? - Treehugger