What is the carbon footprint of technology and carbon benefits of cloud computing and can cloud computing reduce carbon footprint?
In fact digital carbon footprint refers to the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that digital technology resources, devices, tools and platforms produce. The environmental effects of the internet and digital technology tend to be out of sight, out of mind. Nevertheless, those environmental costs are real. Cloud computing could eliminate a billion metric tons of CO2 emission over the next four years, and possibly more, according to a new IDC forecast. Companies on the cloud can reduce carbon released into the air by 88%, lower power utilization by up to 84%, and 77% less server. Cloud-native application modernization: Rearchitect applications to be cloud native. Well-architected applications can use technologies that produce a smaller carbon footprint, such as containers and server less.
This is a very broad question. When you refer to technology, the phrase catches so many things such as automobiles, home appliances, robots, computers, and personal gadgets. You may want to refine the question further by asking which of these you are referring to. Each of them has a carbon footprint. A flight from Bangalore to Chennai will leave behind a carbon footprint, but what would be the alternative to the flight and what would be the footprint of the alterative? Similarly, what would be the carbon footprint of an alternate to cloud computing? You may want to think along these lines.
Global emissions from cloud computing range from 2.5% to 3.7% of all global greenhouse gas emissions, thereby exceeding emissions from commercial flights (about 2.4%) and other existential activities that fuel our global economy. However, the production, use and data transfer of digital devices causes more CO₂ emissions than one might expect. These emissions are summarized under the terms “digital CO₂ footprint” or “digital carbon footprint”. With the myclimate CO₂ calculator you can calculate and offset our CO₂ emissions. In the energy sector, our research shows digital use cases can deliver up to 8% of greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions by 2050. Cloud computing cuts the amount of Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) produced from data centres compared to traditional local servers. Cloud computing consumes less electricity on a global scale and allows many tasks to be performed remotely, it produces less CO2 and has the potential to reduce the ICT's global carbon footprint. Cloud computing reduces a company's carbon footprint, creating lower emissions and increasing the use of renewable energy. In a Microsoft report, results showed significant energy and carbon emission reduction potential compared to on-premises datacenters. Efforts to more accurately measure greenhouse-gas emissions from the infrastructure and devices that enable modern computing have found that they account for about 2%–4% of the global total a bigger carbon footprint than the aviation sector. Combined with server- and facility- level efficiency gains, access to 100% renewable power for hyperscale cloud infrastructure can yield up to 93% reduction in carbon emissions. The sustainability business case for the cloud is quite simple: it reduces the on-premises footprint associated with power/cooling, hardware, and compute power. Outside of reducing a company's carbon footprint, there are other innovative aspects that a cloud platform can deliver.
Our paper will be useful one in this context.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0141933123000510
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