Dmitrij Zarinovs10114882

How Clean Is Your Cloud?Written by Garry Cook, Greenpeace International

Content

IntroductionMost important findingsWhy does the geographic location matter for

cloud computing?What measures are proposed to reduce the

environmental impact of cloud computing?Questions

Introduction

This report provides an update and expanded look at energy choices some of the largest and fastest growing IT companies are making as the race to build the cloud creates a new era of technology.

Most Important Findings

Companies like Amazon, Apple and Microsoft are all rapidly expanding without adequate regards to source of electricity and rely heavily on dirty energy to power their cloud.

Yahoo, Google and Facebook continue to lead sector in prioritizing access to renewable energy in their cloud expansion.

Facebook took the first major step with construction of its latest data center in Sweden, which can be fully powered by renewable energy sources.

The combined electricity demand of the cloud globally in 2007 was 623bn kWh. Based on the current projections, the demand for electricity will more than triple to 1973bn kWh.

In 2011 it is estimated that 6 billion people or 86.7% of the entire global population had mobile telephone subscription.

Rapid growth in use of smart phones and broadband mobile connection means mobile data traffic in 2011 was 8 times size of the entire internet in 2000.

Why does the geographic location matter for cloud computing?It determines weather clean or dirty energy will

be used to power data centers.Adequate availability of reliable and affordable

electricity .Climate (free-cooling)

What measures are proposed to reduce the environmental impact of cloud computing?Direct investments and purchasing of renewable

energy.Demanding from government and electric

utilities to change the policy environment that will enable the acceleration of the investments and deployment of renewable electricity.

Questions?