Cloud Sustainability Statistics in 2024 [Future of the Green Cloud]
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Cloud sustainability, which ensures that cloud computing and infrastructure are environmentally friendly and ecologically sustainable, is more important than ever. Organizations that close their data centers to run their workloads in the cloud contribute to a significant reduction in carbon emissions.
Centralizing data center infrastructure reduces electricity consumption due to increased efficiency, which in turn leads to decreased carbon emissions, especially when coupled with renewable energy sources. High-efficiency energy systems, advanced machine learning models and efforts to switch to renewable energy have greatly contributed to ecological sustainability.
In addition to environmental sustainability, efforts to achieve cloud sustainability may bring about economic and social sustainability. Economic sustainability in this case can stem from the cost savings and scalability of the cloud, while the cloud’s support for remote work and real-time global interaction promotes social sustainability.
Definition: What Is Cloud Sustainability?
Cloud sustainability, also known as green cloud computing, is the use of cloud systems to maintain ecological balance and ensure sustainable growth. It refers to the ways the cloud can promote having a positive environmental impact. It also describes how cloud providers can ensure efficiency in delivering cloud services.
When it comes to environmental sustainability, cloud computing is useful in many ways, including reducing carbon footprint, improving efficient energy consumption, reducing resources used in cooling systems and so on.
Beyond environmental balance, the cloud can also ensure sustainable social and economic systems. The common factor in all of these is improving efficiency.
Benefits of the Cloud for Sustainability
One of the core benefits of the cloud for sustainability is decarbonization; cloud technologies currently play a significant role in reducing carbon emissions. In the years to come, cloud systems are tipped to promote the implementation of almost half the decarbonization initiatives needed to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that cloud-powered technologies in industries, such as manufacturing and transportation, could reduce 32 metric gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent — this would be around half the total reduction needed to hit worldwide net-zero emissions by 2050.14 In addition to promoting decarbonization, cloud sustainability can generate more than $100 billion in annual savings.
Sustainable Technology Trends and Goals
The adoption of the cloud for sustainability is backed by various trends and statistics. The following key points highlight some of these sustainable technology trends.
- By 2027, sustainability of IT organizations will be one of the performance metrics for 80% of chief information officers (CIOs).4
- Migrating to the cloud can reduce carbon emissions by up to 84%, compared to traditional infrastructure.5 For example, running workloads in the AWS cloud in South America is about 4.1 times more efficient than on premises.6
- High environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance was linked to lower volatility and higher operating margins.7
- Companies migrating to the cloud can potentially save almost 50% in total cost of ownership.7
- Migrations to the cloud could reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by 59 million tons per year, the equivalent of removing 22 million cars from active use.7
- Cloud providers are now running data centers with renewable energy and low-carbon fuels while using innovative and water-conserving cooling methods.1,2,3
- More cloud providers like AWS are using hardware made from low-carbon concrete and steel to reduce carbon footprint.1
- Cloud providers are offering more tools and features that streamline carbon accounting for customers and make it more transparent. These tools allow customers to make informed decisions about technological sustainability.9,10,11,12
Global Value of the Cloud
Cloud adoption and migration across industries can significantly reduce carbon emissions, which is why it’s good news for the world that there’s a lot of growth to look forward to in the industry.
Estimates from 2023 place the cloud computing industry’s value at more than $500 million, and all signs point toward another surge in the coming years, which can correlate with sustainable growth. Below, we list some insights about the global value of the cloud.
- Studies project that global cloud value in earnings before tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) will increase to about $3 trillion by 2030. Innovative solutions like IoT and automation advancements, plus faster logistics, will be major drivers of this increase. Cost savings, revenue risk and reduced risk will also contribute.13
- The cloud’s impact on EBITDA value will vary across industries. In the U.S., banking, pharmaceutical, entertainment and tech companies will likely see the most EBITDA gain with increased cloud usage. However, highly regulated industries like infrastructure, electricity, materials and gas may see a lower jump in EBITDA value.13
- Asia has the highest potential gains in cloud EBITDA value — estimated to be about $1.3 trillion. This potential stems from the continent’s huge banking industry and the oil and gas industry, both of which are still in the early stages of cloud adoption.13
- The earliest cloud service providers and the current top three are American cloud companies, which may have contributed to the rapid cloud adoption in that region. In turn, this led to the U.S. currently having the highest cloud value.13
- American industries currently have a cloud value of around $1.1 trillion — the highest globally.13
- Europe and Africa have a combined potential cloud value of just shy of $800 billion — lower than that of North America and Asia.13
- U.S. companies are at various stages of cloud adoption. E-commerce retail and media software technology have the highest levels of adoption. Natural gas and electricity companies in the early stages are often unmotivated to migrate to the cloud. Some banking and insurance companies have only partially adopted the cloud.13
- There are multiple pathways toward cloud adoption and increased cloud value. The trends suggest that conservative cloud adoption pathways will see smaller cloud value increases, while those who go all out will benefit from more value.13
Cloud Provider Sustainability Initiatives: ESG Strategies
Considering AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud have a combined global market share of around 60%, their sustainability initiatives are crucial to the industry, as they set the standards. Below are the highlights of these initiatives.
Cloud platforms are providing various tools for cloud sustainability. These tools offer diverse functions, from measuring the carbon footprint to providing carbon emissions estimates.
Cloud Carbon Calculators
- AWS Customer Carbon Footprint Tool: The AWS carbon footprint tool provides carbon emissions data as well as carbon emissions estimates, including charts and dashboards.
- Microsoft Emissions Impact Dashboard: With Microsoft’s sustainability dashboard, you get information about carbon emissions and carbon savings associated with your cloud usage.
- Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Carbon Footprint Tool: The GCP carbon footprint tool allows you to measure, reduce and report your cloud carbon emissions. It also includes location-based and market-based carbon emissions data.
- IBM Cloud Carbon Calculator: IBM’s tool helps users track greenhouse gas emissions associated with their account. It is generally available to IBM Cloud users, but it does not provide information about all IBM Cloud services.
- Cloud Carbon Footprint: The cloud carbon footprint tool is an open-source tool for measuring and monitoring cloud carbon emissions. It includes charts and dashboards that contain information like a carbon intensity map and estimated energy usage. One advantage it has over other tools is that you can use it on various cloud platforms.
- Oracle Cloud’s Carbon Emissions analysis: Carbon emissions analysis is an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure tool. Though it may not directly reduce carbon emissions, it plays a part in indirect emissions reduction. It provides reports, estimates and analyses that can improve carbon footprint management.
- Salesforce Net Zero Software: This “net-zero-as-a-service” software can help measure carbon emissions beyond cloud usage. You can use it to measure your business’s carbon emissions due to travel, energy usage and so on. It also has automated reporting and AI-based insights.8
Cloud Sustainability Certifications
Cloud sustainability certifications are an indicator of an organization’s environmental impact. They confirm a company’s sustainability efforts and can potentially improve brand reputation.
At the moment, there are various cloud sustainability certifications but no standardization. We explain some of them below:
- Linux Foundation has a “green software” training program for building and running greener applications.
- Microsoft’s IC-002T00—A: Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability teaches skills to reduce carbon emissions and provide sustainable data reporting.
- The Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance’s (SDIA) Sustainable Cloud Certification is given to organizations based on environmental and social sustainability criteria.
- Renewable energy certificates are proof of renewable energy usage, and they count toward cloud sustainability certifications.
Final Thoughts
Cloud sustainability will play a huge part in the way the world engages with technology; it will spur the prioritization of environmental and social values when designing technological systems. So far, the top cloud providers are already creating water-saving infrastructure and using low-carbon alternative fuels in a bid to reduce their environmental impact and meet standards.
AI and machine learning currently play significant roles in cloud sustainability, and their usage in this field will continue to grow.
What are your thoughts on cloud sustainability? How do you think cloud sustainability will affect social systems in the coming years? Share your thoughts in the comments below; we’d love to hear from you. Thank you for reading.
FAQ: Cloud Computing and Sustainability
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Sustainability in the cloud involves measuring and reducing the environmental impact of cloud usage. It also involves the use of cloud systems to promote ecological balance.
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Sustainability in AWS is the use of AWS services to collect, analyze, interpret and manage sustainability data.
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ESG in the cloud includes all efforts towards environmental, social and governance sustainability in the cloud.
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The four C’s of sustainability are conservation, community, culture and commerce.
Sources:
- Amazon Sustainability – The Cloud
- Microsoft – Azure Sustainability
- Google Sustainability – Sustainable Innovation & Technology
- Gartner – Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2024
- Accenture Newsroom – Cloud Migrations Can Reduce CO2 Emissions
- Amazon Sustainability – Carbon Reduction
- Accenture Strategy – The green behind the cloud
- Salesforce – Climate Action Plan
- AWS – Customer Carbon Footprint Tool
- Google Cloud – Carbon Footprint
- Microsoft Azure – Sustainability Calculator
- Salesforce – Net Zero Cloud
- McKinsey Digital – Projecting the Global Value of the Cloud
- McKinsey Digital – Cloud-Powered Technologies for Sustainability
- Amazon Sustainability – Water Stewardship
- Microsoft – Optimizing Water Use
- Microsoft – Reforestation
- Microsoft – Improving Communal Water Quality and Availability
- Microsoft – Partnering with Renewable Energy Projects
- Google Sustainability – Circular Economy Marketplace
- Google – Our Commitment to Water Stewardship
- Google – 7 Ways We’re Helping to Reduce Plastic Pollution
- Amazon — Renewable Energy Methodology Updated July 2024
- Google Maps Platform — Solar API Overview
- Google — Our latest efforts to help California’s monarch butterflies