The possibilities of the cloud
For many people, the cloud may be considered a rather abstract concept, but in theory, it’s actually very simple. Instead of everyone having their own server, data centres have been created. Many companies and private citizens can connect to these data centres and utilise hard drives, CPUs, and GPUs when needed without having to own, manage, and update the hardware themselves.
From a sustainability perspective, the cloud has proven more economically sustainable as well as more environmentally friendly, although there are indications that the abstract nature of the cloud along with the fact that it’s easy and cheap to store large amounts of data in it tend to make us “hide and forget in the cloud”. So, how much better is the cloud really, and are there any downsides that should be considered?
Good questions to ask oneself
- Was sustainability a factor when deciding on your cloud provider?
- Do you know what type of electricity your cloud provider uses for its data centre(s)?
- Do you know where in the world your cloud provider’s data centres are located?
Artiklar & rapporter om molnet
The Cloud Is Material: On the Environmental Impacts of Computation and Data Storage
Vetenskaplig artikel
Monserrate, S. G. (2022). MIT Case Studies in Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing.
Measuring the Carbon Intensity of AI in Cloud Instances
Vetenskaplig artikel
Dodge, J., Prewitt, T., Tachet des Combes, R., Odmark, E., Schwartz, R., Strubell, E., Luccioni, A. S., Smith, N. A., DeCario, N. och Buchanan, W. (2022). Association for Computing Machinery, New York.
A Systematic Survey on Energy-Efficient Techniques in Sustainable Cloud Computing
Vetenskaplig artikel
Bharany, S., Sharma, S., Khalaf, O. I., Abdulsahib, G. M., Al Humaimeedy, A. S., Aldhyani, T. H. H., Maashi, M., & Alkahtani, H. (2022). Sustainability, 14
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