Green cloud will lead race to net zero

The Decade of Action is in full swing, and with the Australian Government making a big push towards net zero with its investment in a National Net Zero Authority, businesses are feeling the heat to act fast.

Fortunately, Australia is one of the most cloud-mature markets in the world. According to a recent global study by TCS, 81% of the top Australian enterprises agree that they have already achieved most, if not all, of their cloud-based goals for critical apps and workloads, in comparison to just 65% of global enterprises. This means businesses are in a prime position to lead the way in energy transition by leveraging the green cloud — a sustainable approach in the design, manufacture, use and disposal of IT resources. In fact, the majority of Australian businesses (70%) are already leveraging cloud technologies to achieve their sustainability goals.

The power of going green in the cloud

Embracing the sustainable approach to cloud computing has several key benefits for businesses:

• Cut your energy consumption: It’s no secret that traditional data centres use a whole lot of energy. Physical servers, storage systems and cooling systems all suck up power. But green cloud environments are a different story. Thanks to savvy server consolidation, automation and dynamic provisioning, clouds use less energy than their traditional counterparts. Plus, multitenancy allows multiple organisations to share resources without sacrificing performance.
• Eliminate your emissions: Traditional data centres have a heavy carbon footprint. Everything from assembly, transport and operation to disposal produces greenhouse gases (GHG). But the green cloud is designed to be more energy efficient, emitting far fewer GHGs. Cloud providers like Microsoft, AWS and Google Cloud purchase massive amounts of renewable energy either indirectly through energy certificates or directly from renewable energy suppliers like solar and wind farms. In fact, many of them are aiming to source 100% of their electricity from renewables in the near future. Microsoft’s Azure cloud service has been shown to reduce carbon emissions by up to 98% compared to traditional on-premises data centres.
• Dematerialise your infrastructure: The impact of data centres on the environment doesn’t just start when they’re switched on. It actually starts right from the moment the materials needed to build those servers are mined and acquired. Think about all the energy that goes into extracting those minerals and transporting them to factories — that’s a lot of greenhouse gases being pumped out. It doesn’t just end there. When servers and hardware get old, they need to be replaced or updated. This results in even more e-waste, which is a huge problem for our planet. But with dematerialisation — replacing physical products with virtual ones — we can significantly reduce our environmental impact. By relying on less hardware, we cut down on the amount of minerals and materials needed to make this equipment in the first place.

The struggles of going green

As with all technology, it comes with challenges. One is the cost of entry. For many businesses, the initial investment in projects for application modernisation and building sustainable cloud solutions may seem daunting. However, with the right roadmap and business case in place, organisations can assess the true benefits of these initiatives and make informed decisions.

Another challenge is the reluctance to move away from old application architectures and legacy models of IT operations and management. According to the latest global cloud study by TCS, the accumulated complexity and rigidity of business processes and operations is the single biggest obstacle for cloud adoption among more than half (53%) of Australian businesses. But with a clear understanding of the benefits of green cloud services and a commitment to sustainable practices, businesses can overcome this resistance and make strides towards net zero.

Sustainability is good for people, the planet and profits

While the cost of entry for sustainability solutions may have been prohibitive, there is a surprising positive correlation between sustainability initiatives and profitability. According to news reports, 86% of Australian industry leaders now see a positive connection between taking environmental action and profitability. Around 56% of Australian businesses now believe addressing environmental issues will be material to business results within the next five years.

With sustainability at the front and centre for most business leaders, we are really seeing the fusion of technology and business strategy to support ESG targets. We are being offered a unique opportunity to reboot to a new era, an era where sustainability and prosperity are part of the same set of aspirations and success equation.

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