Green benefits of cloud storage can’t be overlooked

Category:: Online Storage
Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Cloud storage can offer its adopters plenty of benefits, from cost effectiveness and flexibility to anywhere, anytime access to hosted information. But, according to the experts at Google, there is one advantage of cloud computing that can't be overlooked: sustainability.

With file hosting and other such technologies, according to a recent report on the Google Green Blog, companies can expect to not only reduce their carbon footprint and impact on the environment, but also cut their energy expenses. By storing enterprise information on third-party servers and accessing it through the Internet, a company no longer has to build, manage and pay for its own data center.

"Besides helping you be more productive, cloud-based services … can reduce energy use, lower carbon emissions and save you money in the process," the Google Green Blog stated.

By leveraging cloud computing services, such as online storage, Google estimated that organizations can experience energy cost savings of between 65 and 85 percent. That means not only are cloud computing users doing their part for Mother Nature, but they are also supporting the bottom line by lowering their companies' utility bills.

The difference with cloud computing, according to Google, is that instead of operating their own data centers and paying their own energy bills, companies can offload the responsibility to a vendor and share space on its servers.

"A typical organization has a lot more servers than it needs — for backup, failures and spikes in demand for computing," the blog stated. "Cloud-based service providers … aggregate demand across thousands of people, substantially increasing how much servers are utilized."

The Carbon Disclosure Project is a much-talked-about study that has addressed the relationship between the cloud and companies' sustainability initiatives. According to researchers, there is perhaps no other technology available right now that can match the cloud's green benefits.

According to the project, large companies in the United States alone could combine to save $12.3 billion in energy costs and reduce yearly carbon emission to 200 million barrels of oil — which equals taking 5.7 million cars off the road each year — through their use of the cloud.

For these reasons, the cloud's green benefits should be a top consideration for companies looking to deploy file hosting services or some other form of cloud computing technology.