Google Apps Cloud Is Not So Green As It Should Be

When Google published on its blog a week ago that changing to Google Apps may help a business spend drastically less energy, due to the fact that Google Apps uses the cloud, We remained  skeptic,  noting that the cloud is only as green as the data centers that host cloud-based systems and services.

These days, Tom Raftery from GreenMonk adds his ideas on the issue, coming to the conclusion that Google Apps cloud really has a rather high carbon level, or to put it differently, how much carbon emissions are generated to produce the energy used by the data centers. Read Here:

” I have been investigating and publishing on Cloud Computing for quite some time here. Specifically, I’ve been highlighting how it is not possible to know if Cloud computing is truly sustainable because none of the significant Cloud providers are publishing sufficient data about their energy consumption, carbon emissions and water use. It is not enough to simply state total power consumed, because different power sources can be more, or less sustainable – a data center run primarily on renewables is far less carbon intensive than one that relies on power from an energy supplier relying on coal burning power stations. “ 

Raftery records that Google’s information are a bit misleading, as there are several  factors that may contribute to such an energy efficiency bump as large as Google states it can give companies that go for  Google Apps. He additionally notes that the data centers hosting the Google Apps Cloud aren’t optimized for decreased emissions, meaning, as Raftery states, “there’s plenty of room for improvement!”

You can read the full post over at GreenMonk.

 

Tags: Cloud, cloud-based systems, Computing, featured, Google, Google Apps, review, technology

Category: Environment, News, Science-Technology