5 Tips IT Departments Can Implement To Help Reach Their Sustainability Goals
By Adonay Cervantes Global Field CTO at CloudBlue
According to the World Economic Forum, if brought to scale, digital technologies could reduce emissions 20% by 2050 in the three highest-emitting sectors: energy, materials, and mobility.
These three industries are already on track to reduce emissions by 4-10% by 2030 by accelerating the adoption of digital technologies.
According to the report, data transparency, digital talent and partnership will be key ingredients to technology adoption at scale. As the impacts of climate change grow, how can IT departments help meet their sustainability goals? Here are five tips IT departments can take to boost efficiency:
- Use Edge Computing. Edge computing can process data closer to the source and can reduce the need for long-distance data transfers, decreasing energy consumption. If you use AI, 5G and edge cloud services on the same platform, for example, you can reduce costs and use energy resources more wisely.
- Invest in Sustainable Data Center Operations. Data is power, and some of the world’s largest cloud providers are investing in sustainable data center operations to help businesses improve and track their energy efficiency. A pharmacy chain, for instance, uses software to compile massive amounts of data on inventory and customer information. It is more efficient to partner with a large data center rather than maintain an in-house server which would have to run 24/7. The pharmacy chain benefits from an energy-efficient network and cooling equipment.
- Turn to a Hyperscale Platform. Using a hyperscale platform on a subscription basis enables you to use resources when you need them from public and private clouds. You get energy on demand without the burden of owning infrastructure and data centers. For instance, retailers will need more computing resources and data storage during peak shopping season.
- Choose the right Cloud Infrastructure. Resilient cloud infrastructures can reduce downtime, business disruptions and help improve efficiency. Understanding the right size of your cloud services will help you not only save money but also energy as you begin using resources that you really need, when you really need them. There is a new management practice called cloud financial operations, or FinOps, which calls for shared responsibility for a company’s cloud computing costs and framework across departments. Under the FinOps approach, teams throughout the business work together to manage the cost of cloud solutions, along with establishing governance guidelines to promote best practices.
- Geography matters when it comes to sustainability. Hyperscalers, for instance, offer reports on different grids around the world with metrics on energy efficiency metrics. This allows companies to select the location for deploying workloads and consider the energy expenditure metric for that specific region. Choosing data center locations in regions with cooler climates can naturally lower cooling requirements and energy consumption.
Some of the world’s largest cloud providers, or hyperscalers, are investing in sustainable data center operations to help businesses improve and track their energy efficiency. Microsoft, Google and other cloud operators offer online management tools that help you monitor and analyze your energy consumption. With a sustainability dashboard, you get real-time data on whether you need to scale down consumption or use more energy during peak consumer demand. As a business customer, when you partner with a hyperscaler you get huge computing resources, enabling you to consume energy on demand and scale back usage when you don’t need it, and improving operational efficiency.