Is the Cloud Sustainable?

Living in the digital age allows us to do almost everything online. Technology will enable us to attain and transfer information through the internet. We have already bid farewell to the thousands of papers and hard disks. In today’s era, you may have heard of cloud storage, but what is it really, and why is it so popular? 

“The cloud” is software and databases that run on servers that may be accessed over the internet. It is basically a massive online warehouse that allows netizens to store data. So if you accidentally deleted something and it is saved in the cloud, you can still access it there. It is called the “cloud” because the pieces of information stored can be accessed in a virtual space; direct management by the user is not needed. 

This invention is advantageous to everyone, especially those who are in social networking. However, is this data storing environment-friendly? Data centers do not create pollutants such as greenhouse gasses, but the power supplies and electric utilities generate pollutants that go into the atmosphere. Despite the harmful effect, it is not a good idea to ultimately take this idea away. Companies have created ways to lessen the carbon footprints and the pollutants created by this. The following are the reasons and actions made by the companies to address this concern.

Creating better infrastructures 

Initially, data centers do not have a choice in the location set unless the company that builds them is huge. Having a very long distance makes it prone to significant losses during the transmission of electrical energy. Now, the data centers are placed closer to the facilities that power them to lessen the adverse effects.

Reducing the electricity use

Before, data hardware systems required uninterruptible power supplies and electricity. These high-maintenance systems consume too much energy. The electricity that is being consumed is reduced by moving basic software like email to the cloud. These software applications’ total energy consumption is lowered thanks to the cloud.

Increased efficiency

Companies before use their own private data centers, meaning they have low utilization rates. The cloud uses the machines to their full potential. Strengthening the machine use and operating the servers at a high utilization rate increases the efficiency, making this more environment-friendly. 

These are measures that the big companies have done to be more green. The following are ways how to reduce the negative impact of storing data as an individual. 

Check your cloud providers

Do some quick research to see if your cloud providers are conscious of the environment and if they work on ways to make storing data less damaging o the environment. Check the percentage of renewable energy and if the carbon emissions are reduced.

Delete dark data

Look through your data and delete the dark data that has piled up. Dark data are the information that organizations collect regularly but do not use for other purposes. Some examples of these are log files, notes, and emails. 

Shut down unused storage devices

The storage devices you have usually contain heavy metals and other toxic chemicals. This may erode and pollute the environment over time. If this happens, there will be a domino effect. The ground and water may be contaminated, which inconveniences the people. They then would look for other ways to obtain the resources they need, and these ways may be harmful to the environment.

These efforts made have lessened the usage of servers, carbon emissions, and power. Clearly, the cloud has a beneficial influence on consumers. This technology has already become part of the worldwide industry and will only get better as innovations come by.