Forget White Clouds – a Green Cloud Awaits
This in for the environmentally-conscious business leader or IT professional: a recent environmental impact study of cloud computing shows the potential for significant reductions in energy consumption and carbon emissions. How significant? The study says 30% or more.
The general thesis of the report: the smaller the organization, the larger the environmental benefit by moving to the cloud. Small businesses (defined as up to 100 computer users) benefited the most environmentally by moving applications and services away from their own servers to the cloud, reporting energy and carbon savings of more than 90%.
Says Microsoft’s chief environmental strategist Rob Bernard, “The cloud has the ability to deliver business value for customers in an age where corporate responsibility is critical to business success.”
Read more here.
Among the reasons cited by companies moving to the cloud include reduced costs, increased business flexibility, and increased productivity. Cost reductions for companies moving to the cloud come from elimination of purchasing and maintaining costly infrastructure (hardware and software), lowered management overheads, and reduced energy bills.
For the environmentally conscious, it’s always nice to save money while saving the Earth!