Why Cloud Computing is Good for the Environment

Cloud adoption has become the new normal for many businesses and after the pandemic, cloud adoption exploded. Research has shown that eighty six percent of businesses feel that the cloud has become essential to running their daily operation and eighty seven percent see storing data in the cloud as easier than alternative methods. Sustainability has become popular in many organizations and is commonly becoming a goal for them to achieve.

One way they are working towards this goal of sustainability is to adopt cloud services. Cloud providers like Tekscape make strong commitments to sustainability through how they plan, build, power, and operate their data centers. For businesses that want to take a serious step in cutting their emissions and increasing sustainability, cloud computing is a great option. Read on to learn why cloud computing is good for the environment.

Why Cloud Computing is Good for the Environment

Cloud computing reduces the need to travel which reduces greenhouse emissions

One of the most appealing features of cloud computing is unified communications as a service or UCaaS. This service gives employees a valuable set of tools that include voice, video, and messaging which allows employees to work remotely. Teams can communicate and collaborate anywhere which eliminates the need for commuting and travel. This has led to a decrease in the emission of greenhouse gases.

UCaaS can also save your company money because studies have shown that it decreases travel costs by thirty percent. Additionally, when employees worked from home during the height of the pandemic, greenhouse emissions were reduced by twenty five percent in the morning and thirty four percent in the evening. The work from home model has continued into 2023 with workforces moving to a completely remote or hybrid model.

Why Cloud Computing is Good for the Environment

Can moving to the cloud reduce energy consumption?

As energy costs continue to rise consumption is becoming a main concern of many organizations. On premise data centers require a constant power supply and cooling system to prevent overheating. According to Energy Innovation, in house servers and cooling systems account for almost eighty six percent of electricity consumption within data centers. Cloud computing can significantly reduce energy consumption. Collaborative research has shown that it can reduce consumption by eighty seven percent. The research also found that companies can save between sixty percent and eighty five percent when they move to cloud-based services.

Why Cloud Computing is Good for the Environment

Cloud hosted companies use updated equipment which reduces energy use

Companies that offer cloud hosting replace their servers more often than traditional hosting because of their overall usage. Cloud companies are consistently upgrading their technology to the latest and greatest options. Newer technology usually means more energy efficient equipment than the technology that is being replaced. Businesses that traditionally host their servers at their location usually refrain from server upgrades because they are time consuming and expensive. These servers cost the business more in energy costs because they are much less efficient. Traditional servers require a significant amount of power, cooling, and electricity to work.

Cloud data centers are powered by renewable energy

Several cloud data centers are now powered by renewable energy sources such as solar, geothermal, and wind. All of these emit little or no greenhouse gases. Many data centers are pledging to be at a net-zero for emissions by 2050. Some are even working for absolute zero which means they will not emit any greenhouse gases from their operations. Data centers are hoping to achieve these goals through innovative designs, new building sites, and the usage of sustainable materials.

Cloud computing helps sustainability increasing dematerialization

Dematerialization allows for the replacement of high carbon physical products with virtual equivalents. This helps the environment by reducing the company’s energy use and carbon footprint. When businesses migrate to the cloud, it means they will use fewer physical machines and hardware. For example, virtual services such as video streaming can be used as opposed to resource wasting physical products. Cloud can also reduce the amount of waste a company uses because it helps them go paperless with products such as Azure and SharePoint. There is no need to print a document to sign it because these services allow documents to be signed electronically. There is also no need to allocate extra storage for paper documents as they can all be stored in the cloud. Cloud storage also reduces paper waste because there is no need to dispose of the paper after usage.

About Tekscape

We hope you enjoyed our article on the reasons why cloud computing is good for the environment. Tekscape is committed to providing proactive, responsive, and timely managed IT services support for our clients. We start with our comprehensive new client onboarding process designed to get your business up-and-running on our monitoring and management tools with as little disruption as possible. For over 15 years, we have successfully onboarded simple and complex IT infrastructure supporting multiple users including:

• Servers and Systems
• Networking
Collaboration (Phone, Video)
• Desktop, Email and Endpoints
Microsoft Office 365 & Azure
• Security & Disaster Recovery

As your trusted partner, Tekscape becomes your go-to-guide for technology best practices aligned with your industry and your unique business goals. Our technology solutions can help reduce operational costs, eliminate downtime and decrease overall IT spend. Contact us today to start your journey.