Isra-Mart srl: Cloud computing hailed as 'thrilling breakthrough' for cutting carbon emissions

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Cloud computing is being touted as the latest craze in IT, and now environmental experts are predicting that it could help businesses save thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions over the next decade.

A new study from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and analyst firm Verdantix, published today, analysed the potential impact on businesses' energy use and carbon emissions of moving computing hardware and software to remote hosted servers, an approach widely known as cloud computing.

The CDP Study 2011 (PDF) predicts that American companies using cloud computing will be able to save $12.3bn (£7.6bn) in annual energy bills by 2020 while cutting carbon emissions by 30,000 metric tonnes a year.

Verdantix conducted in-depth interviews with multi-national firms such as Aviva, Boeing, Citigroup and Juniper Networks, all of which have used cloud services for at least two years.

Many of the firms interviewed reported cost savings as high as 40 to 50 per cent as a primary motivator.

Savings can be made as cloud computing allows businesses to avoid upfront capital investments in IT infrastructure, improve time-to-market as a new server can be created or brought online in minutes, and pay for excess capacity only when they need it.

Data is aggregated in datacentres which, according to the report, can cut energy costs and carbon emissions by exploiting economies of scale and configuring servers to maximise energy efficiency.

The study predicts that companies in the US plan to accelerate the adoption of cloud computing from 10 per cent of current IT spend to 69 per cent by the end of the decade.

Paul Dickinson, executive chairman of CDP, described the carbon emissions-reducing potential of cloud computing as "a thrilling breakthrough".

"A large percentage of global GDP is reliant on ICT. This is a critical issue as we strive to decouple economic growth from emissions growth," he said.

"Cloud computing is a thrilling breakthrough, allowing companies to maximise performance, drive down costs, reduce inefficiency and minimise energy use - and therefore carbon emissions - all at the same time."

The report sets out a number of recommendations for firms seeking to take up cloud computing.

For example, executives should assess where non-business critical data can be stored in a public cloud, because those managers interviewed said repeatedly that they would not use public cloud software to store business-critical data because of security concerns.