The top 3 greenest and top 3 dirtiest cloud vendors

There is currently an intertwining trend between cloud computing and big data. More and more companies take a big data business model approach that focus on high-value customer relationships. This requires ever more storage space for data and a local server is barely enough. This is why demand for cloud computing, as the last resort for infinite data storage, has grown by almost 30% in 2013 alone.

The classic options for a cloud solution are Amazon, Google and Apple. In regards to green IT, Apple for example states that all its data centers are running with renewable energy. Amazon though, does not even report carbon emission numbers. This can be taken as a sign that they are not using green energy for their energy supply.

So to shed some light on who's green and who's not, here is a list of the top 3 green cloud vendors:

1. Google: As mentioned in one of our previous articles, Google's focus on green energy is high and they do try to use as minimal unclean energy for their services.
2. Rackspace: High focus on green energy as well. It is the leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the second year in a row. 
3.  HP: One of their business propositions is to provide green energy.

On the contrary, we have the bad boys in the industry:

1. Salesforce: They show no focus on green IT at all.
2. Oracle: "Green is not in Oracle's vocabulary" as experts have said.
3. Amazon: Amazon is actively using coal as one of its main energy sources.

The ratings are based on a scorecard system developed by Greenpeace to measure their "greeness" in cloud services.

While companies have great economic benefit in this fast growing sector, they have a unique opportunity and great responsibility to become more green. Managers have the decision power to influence this by always picking the provider which is more green. It is not about having to pay more, it is just about making the right decision.

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The energy need of Google, Apple and other tech giants

Tech giants like Google, Microsoft and Apple advertise renewable energies and the environment on their website. Is this because they are hugely dependent on energy or is this just a marketing campaign?

Recently, Google invested almost $80 million to build a gigantic solar plant. It will not only provide clean energy to the people around the area, but it also provides a reliable and clean source of energy for its data centers. These data centers require energy because they have a lot of power-sucking servers and air conditioning units. And cooling a huge warehouse to fridge temperatures (which is when computers work best), requires a lot of energy. The amount of energy required is overwhelming.

Companies like Apple are planning to move completely off-grid and produce their own energy. Apple in particular plans to use a green energy source for itself and use the normal power grid as backup. In that way, none of their 24/7 services and productions will come to a halt. Apple is even implementing innovative technologies in buildings so that natural ventilation is promoted and as efficient as an AC. That is break-through development to build a sustainable campus.

Looking at these two examples, it becomes evident that benefits of a energy source owned by the company itself include:

• Integrated energy production exactly matches production and service requirements. There is no power wasted and demand is always met.
• Optimization of the energy production to the business model means that the key requirement for reliability is met.
• Own energy sources are independent of energy price fluctuations and other market factors. They can also be continuously re-adapted to meet new business needs.
• Lower carbon emissions means lower tax rates and hence less costs. 
• Green energy sources, such as solar panels, require low maintenance and allow the company to focus on its core business (and not energy production).

It therefore makes sense for tech giants to invest in their own energy sources.

Obviously, not every tech company can have its own energy source. Certain economies of scale need to be achieved first before anything remotely similar to the examples above can be achieved. Nevertheless, even solar panels can be worth an investment. Even household consumers are already implementing them successfully.

The key takeaway here is though that the companies are not going for massive coal plants. They are going for solar panels and hydrogen cells. They require less maintenance, are independent of oil prices and are highly sustainable. For a company where energy production it is not its main focus, most of the green energy sources, anything from wind mills to dams, are ideal to produce its own energy.

In conclusion, to ultimately become fully green in IT requires a company to optimize every aspect of its IT structure. As outlined here, this starts with the green energy production and moves to optimization of every chip on a server.

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