Cloud computing is internet-based computing in which resources, software and information are shared between computers on demand rather than being stored on a separate server locally.
Commentary for the Carbon Disclosure Project: Robert B. Zoellick, President, World Bank Group
Climate change is one of the major challenges of our time. Developing countries and their populations are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change on their livelihoods, environment, and biodiversity. Development and climate change are inextricably linked.
Accordingly, initiatives to analyze, manage, and adapt to climate change are one of the main pillars of the World Bank Group’s mission.
Research has found that the rise of cloud computing could have a positive environmental impact and help reduce the IT industry’s massive carbon footprint, which is estimated to account for 2 % of the world’s total carbon emissions.
Cloud computing allows companies to reduce costs by buying less hardware and using servers located securely and safely elsewhere to store, manage and process data.
Across business, executives are looking for ways in which they can operate more sustainably and thereby increase their competitive edge. Information Communications Technology (ICT) is seen as a key area of focus for achieving sustainability goals.
Carbon Disclosure Project 2010 Global 500 Report by PwC UK shows that business use of cloud computing can play an important role in an organisation’s sustainability and IT strategies: improving business process efficiency and flexibility whilst decreasing the emissions of IT operations.
This study used detailed case study evidence from 11 global firms and assessed the financial benefits and potential carbon reductions for a firm opting for a particular cloud computing service. It also demonstrates how projected cloud computing adoption could drive economy-wide business benefits from a financial and carbon reduction perspective in the US.
For many, it represents the platform for the next generation enterprise, promising low total cost of ownership (TCO), high scalability and an easy pay-as-you-go cost structure. These advantages and more are driving its adoption across businesses around the world and are causing leading IT companies to focus their energies on the cloud and the applications that can be derived from it.
Interviews undertaken by the Carbon Disclosure Project study show that blue-chip companies in the UK plan to accelerate the adoption of cloud computing from 10% to almost 70% of their information technology by 2020. The study claims that these companies that use cloud computing could achieve annual energy savings of £1.2 billion (€1.39 billion) and carbon reductions equivalent to the annual emissions of over 4 million passenger vehicles.
Why Cloud Computing – Cloud computing allows companies to reduce costs by buying less hardware and using servers located offsite in data centres to store, manage and process data.