Green Cloud Computing

Introduction:

Did You know? Every Netflix binge, an email or, a PUBG match – doesn’t have a silver lining, but of a deadly poison carbon. As these data are stored in the cloud, they are sufficiently huge to ding the climate. More than 90% of companies across the world now use cloud technology to store their data.
Is Cloud Computing Bad For The Environment? But, how? Cloud computing power utilization has lead to a much-publicized debate. On one hand where you have specialists crediting cloud computing for saving up resources, but some experts are also blaming cloud computing for consuming high megawatts of power increasing carbon footprint in the environment.
Cloud computing is a dynamic field of information and communication technologies (ICTs), introducing new challenges for environmental protection. Cloud computing technologies have a variety of application domains, since they offer scalability, are reliable and trustworthy, and offer high performance at relatively low cost. The cloud computing revolution is redesigning modern networking, and offering promising environmental protection prospects as well as economic and technological advantages. These technologies have the potential to improve energy efficiency and to reduce carbon footprints and (e-)waste. These features can transform cloud computing into green cloud computing.
“GREEN CLOUD COMPUTING” has been embraced by businesses to stay environment-friendly. Let’s find out what is green cloud computing, why it’s going viral, the pros and cons of green cloud computing, and companies with the greenest cloud.

Green Computing

Green Computing is where organizations follow certain guidelines to guarantee that the operations and set up of Information Technology produce the minimal carbon footprints”. A green data center comprised of all advanced systems manufactured utilizing efficient technologies which can store and operate on data in an optimized way.
Green computing is the study of designing, producing and using digital devices to reduce the impact of digital devices on the environment.

Green cloud

Green cloud is a buzzword that refers to the potential environmental benefits that information technology (IT) services delivered over the Internet can offer society. The term combines the words green — meaning environmentally friendly — and cloud, the traditional symbol for the Internet and the shortened name for a type of service delivery model known as cloud computing.

Green cloud computing

Cloud computing has turned into a fundamental infrastructural need for organizations for a few reasons covering adaptability, security, and cost-effectiveness, and so on.
Green cloud computing refers to the strategies and development of the computer systems that utilizes resources efficiently in order to decrease the impact of the continued IT processes on the environment.
Green cloud computing involves designing, producing, and using digital spaces in a manner to reduce its impact on the environment. A green cloud solution can not only save energy but significantly reduce enterprise operational costs. Therefore, it is central to the future of enterprise cloud computing.
Green cloud computing allows users to utilize the benefits of cloud storage while decreasing its adverse effects on the environment, ultimately affecting human well-being.
Actual and future green cloud computing is based on green data centers, which maximize energy efficiency while minimizing CO2 emissions and e-waste, not just for ICT equipment but for all environmental factors (building, lighting, cooling, etc.)
While SMBs focus on reducing costs, outsourcing and using cloud computing for their betterment, green computing can cover the extra burden that goes into the environment due to excessive energy consumption.

figure: Green Cloud Architecture

Green data center

A green data center, or sustainable data center, is a service facility which utilizes energy-efficient technologies. They do not contain obsolete systems (such as inactive or underused servers), and take advantage of newer, more efficient technologies. Green data centers used advanced technologies for data storage, management, and operations on the data.

Goals of Green Cloud Computing

The objectives of green cloud computing architecture are to minimize the usage of hazardous materials, amplify the energy proficiency of the product throughout its lifetime, and advance the recyclability or biodegradability of factory waste. Continuous research is being done into key areas, for example, utilizing PCs as energy-efficient as could really be expected, and designing algorithms and frameworks for effectiveness related computer advancements. There are a few ways to deal with green figuring, in particular:

• Product longevity
• Algorithmic efficiency
• Virtualization
• Resource allocation
• Power Management

The Benefits of Going Green

Green cloud computing aims to include energy-efficient technology, environmentally sustainable production practices and improved waste and recycling procedures.

• Green Design: Designing energy-efficient servers, infrastructure, computers, software applications and other digital devices will reduce the amount of energy consumed in the future
• Green Production: Minimizing energy and waste by recycling and repurposing equipment during the production process of digital devices can contribute to a more sustainable environment.
• Green Usage: Reducing the amount of energy a product utilizes while in use can reduce up to 27% of energy.

Aside from large corporations and large data centers reducing their waste, the average computer user can also implement green practices into their data usage.

• Using sleep mode while away from your computer for an extended amount of time
• Turn off computers at the end of the day
• Consider refurbishing electronic devices rather than buying new ones
• Recycle electronic waste products

Techniques to Make the Cloud “Green”

• Nano Data Centers: Nano Data Centers are more productive than conventional server centers. They help in diminishing the expense of heat dissipation, have high service vicinity, and ability to self-scalability.
• Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling: A strategy that decreases the power and energy consumption is used with frequency scaling. Carrying out this method will diminish energy utilization and influence the use of resources.
• Virtualization: It maximized the quantity of accessible systems resources in an environment-friendly way. It empowers better monitoring and resource allocation management, and overall it helps the server group to maximize the ability to share resources.

Advantages of Green Cloud Computing

• Green Cloud Computing: Allows You Go Paperless One of the major benefits of green cloud computing is that Green cloud computing has helped organizations go paperless by offering several cloud storage options like OneDrive, Drop Box, SharePoint, etc. These data storage options have taken the paperless to a whole new level of functionality. This implies you can eliminate the need to reuse, shred, burn, or discard your paper documents, and protect the climate from the adverse impact they can make.
• Green Cloud Computing: Decrease Carbon Footprints Cloud computing has given the ability to work from anywhere and anytime which as result has given birth to the concept of remote work. As more and more people are working remotely, its cuts down on fuel emissions and therefore, reduces the carbon footprints from the environment. Also, you require less infrastructure and thus save energy from it as well.
• Green Cloud Computing: Energy Conservation By adopting the Cloud, organizations can pool their resources and reduce the quantity of equipment needed on-premise, which brings about a decrease in power consumption and make a noticeable downfall in your energy bill.
• Green Cloud Computing: Budget-friendly Platform and Improved Customer Experience Indeed, embracing the cloud platform has offered plenty of benefits. Organizations are able to impress their clients to the peak by offering more responsive applications within the expected deadline which has been possible only due to cloud migration.
• Green Cloud Computing: Multitenancy Multitenancy permits a wide range of organizations (public cloud) or various specialty units within the same organization (private cloud) to profit from a single/common cloud-based infrastructure. The proportion between peak and normal loads decreases, which diminishes the requirement for additional infrastructure and energy.

Disadvantages of Green Cloud Computing

• Implementation Cost is High The initial investment to adopt green computing processing may seem costly for medium-sized and small enterprises. We can say that green computing is yet not so reasonable to everybody.
• Advancing Technology will be challenging to Adapt to Green cloud computing technology keeps evolving, so it is somewhat difficult for everybody to adapt to instantly.
• Green Computers might be Underpowered As the point is to save energy, the computer applications that require high power to perform would be badly impacted by green computing.

List of Companies Having the Greenest Cloud

The most popular cloud service providers – Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have continuously come up with new ways of making their computing green and protecting the environment from deadly emissions. Therefore, here is the list of companies that have invested heavily in green energy projects. In a way, we can say that green computing companies are those that are utilizing these cloud platforms.

1. Amazon Web Services
2. Google Cloud
3. Microsoft Azure

Challenges Faced by Green Cloud Computing

Green cloud computing has emerged as a new flavor that is enticing decision-makers. However, implementation is too way difficult than planning for it. Let us check out what are the possible challenges that come in the way of implementing environment-friendly cloud computing.

• Location of Data Centers
  Data centers should be built in such a way that energy could be saddled from sources like sunlight-based and wind energy which are inexhaustible. They ought to likewise be built in SEZ (Special Economic Zones). While picking an area for the data centers, convenience isn’t the main component that ought to be
  thought of.

• Cooling
  Data centers consume a broad measure of energy for giving power. Furthermore, cooling consumes around 1/third of the all out energy consumed. Some of the cooling techniques are:

1. Free Cooling
2. Evaporative Cooling
3. Liquid Cooling
4. Immersion system
5. Raised floor Chiller plants can be established close to the data centers to offer cool air to the servers to chill off. Giving energy to the hardware is anything but an awkward strategy yet not all the power surrendered is utilized by the equipment, a ton of it is squandered. So proficient strategies ought to be put to use to make the data centers more reliable.

• Storage
  Storage has turned into a big worry for organizations all around the world with the outstanding expansion in the IT industry. Whenever there is an assortment of disks, just not many of them are utilized at a single point in time, so most of them could change to power saver mode. The storage can likewise be merged.

• E-Waste Management
  Companies use nuclear-powered plant or coal-fueled plants, for their energy necessities, which discharge a great deal of nuclear waste and this not just contaminates the climate be that as it may, it likewise represents a significant danger to individuals close by who breathe in those atomic releases.

How green computing in cloud computing is helping organizations to build a sustainable environment?

• Green Cloud Computing Offers Better Infrastructure The public cloud data centers are usually in the vicinity of the power sources that supply electricity for their operations. Thus, minimizing the transmission losses. This advantage is not available for traditional corporate data centers that are installed as on-premises infrastructure.
• Cloud Computing Technology Encourages Virtualization The primary technology in cloud computing is virtualization. This contributes to sustainability by reducing the dependency on high-carbon physical products and replacing them with virtual equivalents.
• It has been a regular practice at Cloud That to assist our clients to adopt cloud computing and be energy efficient in their computational activities. We encourage our clientele to be reputed as organizations that function with an energy-lean diet.
• Green Cloud Computing Enhances Server Utility Rate Organizations invest in on-premises data centers with preparedness to handle spikes in resource utilization. Often, they end up underutilizing resources, while public cloud data centers always ensure optimum utilization of resources. Thus, enhancing the server utility rate.
• Green Cloud Technology Drastically Reduces Energy Consumption According to a research report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, data centers consume about 2% of the total energy consumption in the US. This is approximately 73 to 75 billion kilowatt-hours. But embracing public cloud data centers that run on renewable energy sources like geothermal, solar, wind power, hydropower, and other eco-friendly electricity helps organizations manage energy in a better way.
• Foster Growth of Remote Work Culture Green Cloud Technology has helped many organizations to innovate software solutions and applications that encourage a remote work culture. The recent trend of remote work culture unburdens the traffic on streets, reduces energy consumption at the workplace, enhances productivity, and more importantly saves energy, helping to save the ecosystem. All this is possible with cloud computing.
• Less Impact on Climate According to a recent AWS report, traditional data centers have a dirtier power mix than a typical public cloud provider. Thus, moving to public clouds helps to build a sustainable environment.
• Cloud That Initiatives to Build a Sustainable Environment Cloud That as an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner conducts a record number of cloud-wellness assessment programs free of cost to create awareness amongst small, big, and medium-sized organizations on the importance of the sustainability pillar in the AWS Well-Architected Review. Moreover, we conduct social awareness campaigns for startups and other small organizations to disseminate knowledge on the long-term environmental, economic, and societal repercussions of business activities that must be addressed on war-footing by promoting green cloud technology.

Resources:

• https://peoplactive.com/green-cloud-computing/
• https://doaj.org/article/55ae785c0e0b4cc8aaa1251b9d949ae3
• https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/definition/green-cloud
• https://bigdataanalyticsnews.com/green-cloud-computing-sustainable-use/