A new study, “Cloud Computing and Sustainability: The Environmental Benefits of Moving to the Cloud,” released in early November by Microsoft, Accenture, and WSP Energy & Environment suggests that cloud computing has the potential to dramatically reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, especially for small businesses.
The study was designed to collect empirical evidence that cloud computing – in which resources, software, and information are shared and managed over the Internet – resulted in energy and carbon efficiencies compared to an on-premise computing environment.
For many companies, cloud computing is already the “new normal” thanks to its reduced cost and increased storage and flexibility compared to on-premise servers and traditional network computing. But no previous study has examined whether cloud computing also has significant environmental benefits.
“The findings are actually pretty impressive,” said Josh Whitney, corporate sustainability strategy lead with WSP. “I think this study provides further reinforcement of the benefits of the cloud beyond the bottom line. It provides one of the first quantitative and measurable analyses of the impact that cloud computing can have directly compared to a traditional deployment of IT within a company.”
For a complete summary of the study, visit Microsoft’s news center.