Should Cloud Computing Happen Everywhere?
Cloud computing has taken center stage in the last several decades, largely due to its access to increased power, security, and communication. According to a research report by IBM, approximately 25% of organizations are planning to move all of their applications and resources to the cloud within the next year. The benefits of transitioning to cloud computing seem to outweigh the costs on a variety of fronts. Disaster recovery efforts protect data against any systematic failures, huge volumes of data can be processed at lightning fast speeds… and the list goes on and on.
However, the ecological impacts of cloud computing are not discussed nearly as often. Data centers have to constantly keep up with the increasing demand from both every day internet users to large corporations, and the data has to be stored somewhere. As corporations start to rely more heavily on cloud computing, the Research has shown that one data center alone consumes the equivalent electricity of more than 50,000 homes. Cloud computing has also recently edged out the airline industry when it comes to overall carbon footprint.
Data center technicians commonly experience a “thermal runaway event”, in which massive cooling systems within a service center start to fail one by one. The tremendous amounts of processing and storing that the servers are responsible for create a naturally hot environment, and thus the cooling systems are meant to keep the servers operating normally and efficiently. Across all data centers, cooling systems account for more than 40% of the total electricity usage. When a thermal runaway event occurs, the factory-libraries containing all the data and computational power illicit the help of massive air conditioning units to flood the rooms with intense cold air to restore order.
The engineers, technicians, and executives have a responsibility to consider both profitability and sustainability within the infrastructure of cloud computing systems. With system engines having to run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, heat is simply the byproduct of computation. To keep these systems operating with minimal incidents or outages, cooling mechanisms such as air conditioning and fans have to be utilized constantly. The cost concerns related to setting up and maintaining such infrastructures would lead us into another discussion about the long-term viability of these centers, which is another point to keep in mind as we continue exploring.
Furthermore, these high levels of energy usage go beyond just cooling. Data centers need to be prepared for any and all potential system failures. For that reason, the many cooling systems within a data center are always on, albeit some in a lower-power state. It has been shown that only 6–12% of the energy consumed in a data center can be attributed to active computational processes and data management. Since the costs of a system failure can be enormous, the remainder of the energy usage is dedicated to preventing costly downtime.
According to the 2021 Emissions Gap Report published by the United Nations Environment Programme, temperatures across the globe are slated to rise approximately 37 degrees fahrenheit by the end of this century. Certain data centers are designed to allow cool, chilled water to flow through the pipes of latticework o within server racks to encourage the overall cooling of the facility. Some corporations are aware of the carbon footprint of cooling air and have thus turned to cooling water as a way to combat overheating. Within the United States, Arizona and Utah happen to be two data center hubs. This makes logical sense, given the vast amount of flat land and overall space this area of the United States has to offer. However, residents in Bluffdale, Utah often suffer from the effects of water shortages and power outages driven by the Utah Data Center located nearby. This particular data center typically consumes seven million gallons of water to operate on a daily basis.
Corporations have publicly announced their plans to combat several of these issues. It is largely evident that these companies recognize the ecological consequences of continuing to expand their data centers. Yet, as demand for cloud computing continues to skyrocket in recent years, many companies have no choice but to continue building more data centers to meet the demands of their increasing customer base. At the same time, some companies have discussed the possibility of relocating their data centers to Scandinavia to leverage the naturally cool air to cool data centers. Companies like Google have already committed to invest time and resources into water infrastructure, while publicly pledging to go “water-positive” by 2030.
