How cloud services can securely advance your low-carbon digital transformation strategy
Many public and private organizations throughout the world have switched from data centers to cloud infrastructures. According to Amazon Web Services, this is predicted to result in an 80% reduction in energy use and carbon emissions (AWS): see here.
Cloud data centers employ the most up-to-date and energy-efficient computers, allowing them to operate at better utilization rates than traditional data centers. As a result of this aspect, cloud data centers utilize 67.4% less energy.
Why decarbonized cloud solutions are important
Even though data center output surged sixfold between 2010 and 2018, energy usage only increased by 6%, owing mostly to cloud computing. According to the New York Times report, 79% of computing was done in traditional data centers in 2010, but by 2018, 89% of computing was done in cloud data centers.
Gartner estimates that global end-user spending on public cloud services will climb 18.4% to $304.9 billion in 2021, up from $257.5 billion in 2020: see here.
This digital transition has proven to be a major driver of decarbonization or reducing CO2 emissions from energy sources.
At Atos, we have announced an ambitious decarbonization plan: to reach net zero by 2028 and reduce the global carbon emissions under our control by 50% by 2025. One of the key ways we plan to accomplish this is through a suite of low-carbon cloud services we call Atos OneCloud.
Decarbonization commitments by leading public cloud providers
As climate awareness grows around the world, energy companies are embracing the energy transition underway and the digitalization it will require.
AWS - AWS is the most energy efficient cloud provider, using 88% less energy than on-premises data centers. AWS is also making steady progress toward Amazon's aim of using 100% renewable energy by 2025: here.
GCP – Each Google Cloud region will be supplied by a mix of more carbon-free energy and less fossil-based energy as it works toward its goal of completely decarbonizing data centers and providing the cleanest cloud in the industry. Google’s target is to run the business on carbon-free energy by 2030: here.
Azure - By 2025, Microsoft plans to switch to a renewable energy supply, which means it will have green energy power purchase agreements in place for 100% of the carbon-emitting electricity consumed by its data centers, buildings and campuses: here.
Summary
Public cloud providers are moving toward becoming mature, commodity services that are equivalent to one another. However, they all have distinct variations and value propositions to offer, which might be worth considering for business. However, we expect that balancing capabilities against cost (or ROI) will remain a challenge in the coming years.
Some of the common enterprise transformation challenges are:
- Overcoming different expectations regarding movement to the cloud
- Cloud transformation is predominantly driven and owned by IT
- Difficulty meeting cloud consumption commitments established with public cloud partners
- Difficulty producing successful ROI cases based on projected cost savings
- SaaS and native cloud projects go well, but modernization efforts really struggle
- Trouble bringing new ideas to market fast and effectively
- Lack of an overall roadmap for cloud-related projects
- Development teams utilize agile methods, but budgeting and program management do not
- Difficulty managing change that affects customers and the workforce
- Cloud providers show visionary ideas, but legacy realities make it difficult to implement them
If these challenges look familiar to you, Atos OneCloud Plan is a potential game changer for your business. Atos has created the OneCloud suite of solutions specifically to help companies tackle the biggest challenges posed by cloud, make informed decisions, and harness the full capabilities of cloud to advance their digital journey.
Read my previous blogs in this series:
Multi-cloud trends and strategy: An executive summary - Atos
Decoding the Cloud Computing timeline
Determining the right cloud platform for your business - Atos
Public cloud and the evolution of everything as-a-service - Atos
Demystifying the new wave of technology on the public cloud - Atos
How hybrid and multi-cloud platforms are redefining the DevOps model - Atos
The hybrid cloud model and how public and private clouds work together - Atos
Further reading
You can learn more in Ascent Magazine at atos.net/en/lp/ascent-magazine
You may also be interested in Journey 2024: Redefining Enterprise Purpose
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