Cloud: when high availability hurts sustainability

In recent years, the environmental sustainability of IT has become a significant concern for investors and customers, as well as regulatory, legislative and environmental stakeholders. This concern is expected to intensify as the impact of climate change on health, safety and the global economy becomes more pronounced. It has given rise to an assortment of voluntary and mandatory initiatives, standards and requirements that collectively represent, but do not yet define, a basic framework for sustainable IT.

Cloud providers have come under increasing pressure from both the public and governments to reduce their carbon emissions. Their significant data center footprints consume considerable energy to deliver an ever-increasing range of cloud services to a growing customer base. The recent surge in generative AI has thrust the issues of power and carbon further into the spotlight.