Technology research firm Gartner, Inc., US, has released a special report titled 'Greening the Cloud: Location is Critical for the Sustainable Future of Outsourced Data Storage and Services.' According to the report, cloud computing services are touted as 'greener' than owning and running in-house technology infrastructure, but geographic location is the key to more sustainable outsourced data storage and services.
Data centre operational costs are continuing to rise, with Gartner estimating that up to 50 percent of operating costs are associated with heating and cooling. As a result, energy consumption, efficiency, monitoring and management will be a dominant trend in data centre operations over the next five years. Recent Gartner research points to substantial (greater than 30 percent) potential savings in operating costs relating to electricity usage when efficiency design principles are incorporated, as well as lower upfront capital costs.
According to Gartner, Australia's high carbon intensive energy generation is far from conducive to the development of a long-term green IT services sector. Around 92 percent of the nation's energy is sourced from fossil fuels. New Zealand is comparatively green, classed as a low-emission intensity country. The development of IT storage and services in New Zealand, leveraging the vast and established renewable energy sources such as geothermal, wind, tidal and hydro power, could provide the basis for a substantial content-based economic model, the Gartner report says.
When looking at geographic location, there are many other factors that need to be taken into account. These include the longer-term availability and cost of electricity; communications infrastructure and data latency issues; data privacy; the need to ensure that latency-sensitive services (such as stock market transactions, issues of national security) are securely and proximally located; the presence of a local skilled IT services workforce; and an advantageous local taxation regime that encourages long-term public/private procurement strategies for electricity and other key resources.
The report is available on Gartner's website at www.gartner.com/resId=1627726
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