Is Cloud Computing The Biggest Green Technology?

Global warming and climate change are on top of world’s list of concerns and one of the reasons is our dependence on dirty energy from fossil fuels. We all consider the transportation sector as the main pollution source of our atmosphere, but is the IT industry really exempted from the blame?

Governments around the globe usually have stringent standards on factory or industrial facility energy consumption and emission while the energy consumption in IT laboratories and data centers is overlooked, with the exception of some universities and research organizations. So there are no standards or laws that are meant to be followed when putting up such facility, which makes this a big problem. Research suggests that a great deal of energy is being wasted during energy conversion from AC to DC and it would cost twice as much, in terms of energy consumption, to cool a server than to run it.

Let’s say a server is rated at 500W and it runs 24/7; that server would consume 4380KWh per year. Now let’s assume that ten of those servers are running at the same time for every IT company with more than 1,000 employees. The estimated number of those companies given by the census bureau was 2916 in 2007; it could have grown exponentially within the last five years. This gives a rough value of 12,772MWh of energy consumption in 2007 alone, and twice of that value is used for cooling those servers. That is assuming all companies used the same 500W servers in the same way, but the real-world value could be even greater because there are still many old servers running. And not all of that hardware is being utilized; underutilization is the biggest waste of resource. This is a very big concern, especially since most of that energy is not renewable.

This is where cloud computing and virtualization come in to save the day or decade (maybe even the millennium). Cloud computing uses virtualization to scale resources to infinity, theoretically, while using finite hardware resources. So instead of having 2,916 data centers with 10 servers spread across the U.S., theoretically 2,916 companies could be served by 10 cloud providers running 100 data centers. This means a total annual energy consumption of just 43.8MWh. How’s that for energy savings? That does not even include the savings from cooling and other security measures.

By Abdul Salam

The post Is Cloud Computing The Biggest Green Technology? appeared first on CloudTweaks.

How Small Businesses Can Leverage Cloud Computing To Save Money

Most small businesses spend a lot on energy bills, even as much as $20,000 per year. This is extremely expensive. According to energy experts, small businesses that are struggling with such exorbitant bills need to rethink their energy policies. Saving on electricity costs can help these businesses lower their expenses. This will boost their overall revenues and efficiency for growth. But even in the face of these realities, what energy-saving models can small businesses use to lower their energy costs? The adoption of cloud computing is one of them.

IT businesses especially stand to gain a lot by adopting cloud computing. For many small businesses where manufacturing is not involved, electricity costs are mainly attributed to their IT departments. In fact, from a recent survey carried out by the CDW Corporation, 52 percent of all companies have asked their IT departments to cut down on electricity consumption-costs. Cloud computing (using work applications stored on remote servers) is a valid alternative that brings energy savings to these businesses.

Cloud computing can help businesses reduce energy-consumption costs through virtualization of essential IT functions and servers. This entails consolidating data centers virtualized through an external provider at much lower costs. According to a similar study, this helps an organization to directly cut energy consumption by as much as 28 percent. Considering small businesses spend a lot of their revenue on electricity costs, these savings can be significant, depending on the size of the organization.

The following factors are the results of virtualization and can help an organization save money by reducing its electricity costs.

• A small business does not have to host a local server. The server needs are met by a central provider that maintains it. As a result, the small business does not have to keep the server room running at all times as is often the case. Instead, they can enjoy efficient, cost effective electricity consumption.

• Committing work applications in the cloud encourages employees to telecommute. If your business’ work applications are hosted in the cloud, your employees can work off your business premises. This not only helps your business save on space costs, but also on energy bills.

• Integrating cloud solutions can also help businesses reduce energy expenses they would otherwise incur if their maintained their servers. Naturally, by having all server hardware off site, cooling, conditioning, and general maintenance energy consumption are cut. Overall, this enables your businesses save costs.

Considering all these, if a small business adopts cloud solutions for their daily IT functions, they can save energy.  Therefore, if your business is struggling with huge energy expenses, its time you reconsidered your IT service functions status on the site. If it was on the cloud, you could save a lot of money and fasten your growth.

By Walter Bailey

The post How Small Businesses Can Leverage Cloud Computing To Save Money appeared first on CloudTweaks.

The Cloud Is Going Global – Cloud Computing Developments From A Geographical Perspective

Interesting developments and predictions in the cloud computing industry! We are witnessing a new era in the way computing is performed worldwide, as evidenced by the growing propensity among consumers and enterprises to access their information technology resources through cloud computing.

A Market Research Media survey says the cloud market will reach 270 billion dollars in 2020.  Forrester is slightly less optimistic, predicting that the market will approach 241 billion dollars by that time. Visiongain thinks the cloud services market will be worth about 83 billion dollars by the year 2016, while analysts at HP are very confident in the cloud market’s immediate future, estimating that it will hit 143 billion dollars by 2013.

• Cloud computing around the world

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) Global Cloud Scorecard established a ranking of a countries readiness to drive the growth of a globally integrated cloud marketplace. The top five rankings for markets with the most robust cloud policies went to Japan, Australia, Germany, the United States, and France.

According to the BSA study, 88 percent of the world’s self-identified cloud users say they use cloud services for personal purposes, with 33 percent saying they use cloud services for business. In both cases, the figures are slightly higher in emerging economies such as Thailand, Malaysia, Argentina and Peru than in mature ones such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

• Japan ranks first

There is a clear divide in cloud readiness between advanced economies and the developing world. Japan, the U.S, and EU all have established solid legal and regulatory bases to support the growth of a cloud computing, while developing countries, such as China, India and Brazil, have the most work to do to integrate into a cloud computing market.

Japan ranks first because it has clear and well defined privacy protections that don’t inhibit commerce, a full range of criminal and IP protections, and a massive IT infrastructure. The nation also is a leader in developing international technology standards.

• Where does Europe stand?

As we all know, Europe is not a unique state with a single government and a single set of rules. However, the existence of the European Union (EU) does come with a large degree of homogeneity in treating technical innovations like cloud computing.

While embracing the cloud, Europe has been wary of security issues. The BSA study’s most surprising finding is that some of the countries that are doing well are also adopting laws and regulations that conflict with other countries. For example, the European Union’s proposed Data Protection Regulation could undermine the potential scale and economic impact of the cloud.

• Indicators for Growth of Cloud Computing in Africa

The recent development of cloud computing as a paradigm for economic growth opens great opportunities for African countries that wish to engage in world markets despite lacking the traditional infrastructure necessary to compete in those markets.

At the present, on the African continent only mobile technology has seen significant growth. However, the last year’s landing of three broadband submarine fiber-optic cables promises to bring increased connectivity to the region, leading to a wave of broadband penetration. Of course, we do have to keep in mind that cloud computing will require more than just mobile penetration and broadband connections.

• In conclusion

Regardless of what the future has for us, user-friendly and technological innovations like cloud computing will always be of great interest for businesses around the world.  We just have to keep up!

By Rick Blaisdell / Rickscloud

The post The Cloud Is Going Global – Cloud Computing Developments From A Geographical Perspective appeared first on CloudTweaks.

No More Cloud Delusions!

I am sick and tired of the myriad cloud urban myths that run amok both in and outside of the IT community. One by one, I’d like to dismantle three of my biggest pet-peeve cloud delusions.

Let’s begin with one of the more attractive and “boho-chic” cloud tall tales that never fails to spur lively debate between dissidents and optimists: the idea that the cloud is “green,” or environmentally sustainable and advantageous. Don’t think so! The energy that powers the data centers that themselves power the very notion of cloud computing derives from the same resources that fuel any other electrical output. Obviously, energy in America remains highly contentious. And although the country has come a long way in concentrating on renewable sources, coal and oil still outrank solar, hydroelectric, or other sustainable options.

Google recently announced its support of the notion that cloud can equal greenness, as Wired Cloudline efficiently explores. But Greenpeace protests continue to reinforce the veracity of cloud computing’s compelling need to improve in this area, not bask in ostensible (and still nascent) sustainability supremacy.

We now return to an old chestnut in the cloud delusion conversation: that it lags behind other technologies in terms of security and data protection. Let it go, people! Cloud is inherently just as secure — and insecure — as literally any other computing option out there, and that’s the truth. We acknowledge that the cloud can attract threats due to its fewer yet more intensely utilized data centers. However, the very fact that cloud’s data centers are so efficient and high-powered encourages vigilant upkeep and maintenance regarding them, keeping their data even more protected. Security remains a vital concern in cloud computing, to be sure. But instead of canvassing the myth of its poor security, there ought to be deeper communication between cloud’s clients and vendors on ensuring that data centers are water-tight.

Arguably the most agonizing and pervasive cloud wive’s tale remains the widely held belief that cloud computing will instantly provide a huge financial slim-down for ANYONE who decides to take it up. Wrong! Although cloud computing can help to realign and streamline an organization’s technological existence, that optimization of resources does not necessarily (or automatically) create an economical advantage. Yes, cloud’s scale-ability does allow companies to save money by paying exclusively for the precise data servers required at any specific moment in time. But a business would have to severely reduce its own computing needs for cloud computing to force a reduction in its IT budget.

By no means is this trio — green, security, and money savings — the only group of cloud computing fables that irk me. I’ll tackle more in the future. Which of these three is, in your opinion, the most likely to be believed, no matter what I’ve argued?

By Jeff Norman

The post No More Cloud Delusions! appeared first on CloudTweaks.

Greenpeace Report: How Clean Is Your Cloud?

The cloud computing world was all abuzz last week when Greenpeace released its report, “How Clean Is Your Cloud?” According to the report, global IT brands like Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook are changing how we share pictures, listen to music, watch TV or movies, communicate, and how we work because of the cloud. Due to the scale and growth of investment, the cloud computing community is expected to grow 50 times its current amount by 2020 with an estimated half a trillion dollar in investment by next year which will feed and create the public’s desire for an ever present access to various information from mobile devices, phones, and computers instantaneously.

The report also claims that investments in datacenter in important locations play a significant role in energy demand and the electricity grid’s management. If the expansions on these locations are permitted to continue, these datacenters and the communities around them will find it difficult to move away from dirty energy sources. Greenpeace also notes that aside from Akamai, there is no other company which reports its carbon intensity using the Carbon Utilization Effectiveness Standard.

Although a lot of these IT companies claim that their clouds are “green”, Greenpeace notes that these companies make use of poor metrics to measure environmental performance or actual impact, and the IT entities also lack transparency. Open source sharing and collaboration of best practices in both software and hardware designs help deploy IT designs which are energy efficient as well as accelerate the IT systems’ improvement. The report also claims that the cloud computing community is showing signs of taking a proactive way of ensuring use of available renewable sources of energy for their energy demands and that the community can play a significant role in creating the world’s energy future.

With the continuous growth of cloud computing, it has made important improvements on how the datacenters are operated and designed. The cloud computing companies have significantly reduced power consumption. However, the cost of delivery and energy efficiency of these cloud computing services are also increasing the general consumption of cloud-based products which in turn also increase the need for electricity of these datacenters. IT companies must prioritize use of renewable sources of energy in order to maintain and check safe levels of greenhouse gases global emissions. Dirty sources of energy must be replaced by clean renewable ones.

According to Greenpeace, Yahoo, Salesforce, Akamai, and Google have taken steps to reveal their carbon performance usage related to their clouds. Greenpeace also claims that most IT companies use Power Usage Effectiveness inappropriately as a means of showing their electricity consumption. This is primarily because these IT companies are trying to prevent showing their cost structure, actual performance, or infrastructure scale because their competitors will have an idea about their operations. These IT companies just want to reveal the Power Usage Effectiveness of their datacenters but will not share any data related to their total footprint.

By Florence de Borja

(Zoom In Infographic)

The post Greenpeace Report: How Clean Is Your Cloud? appeared first on CloudTweaks.

Are You Overwhelmed By The Number Of Cloud Services To Manage?

The past 2 years have seen a rapid adoption of cloud services among enterprises. CIOs and CTOs were able to convince the CEOs about the business case for cloud migration. However, the biggest sticking point is in the integration of various cloud services.

The need for convergence

While many enterprises have moved their non-critical applications to the public cloud for the cost advantage and robustness, regulatory compliance and performance needs are forcing some of them to use the private cloud and virtual private cloud for core business operations. Moreover, legacy applications are making the enterprise keep a part of the operations in traditional IT infrastructure.

Many enterprises are thus forced to juggle between their public cloud, private cloud and enterprise IT installations. This has lead to technology silos that are hampering the flow of information across the enterprise. To make things worse, the cloud service provider market is still nascent and major standards have not emerged to manage this fragmentation. Enterprise CIO Forum has more information on the pains faced by the IT organizations due to the fragment.

This is where I think HP’s Converged Cloud offering is interesting. Their solution is a blend of the open source platform OpenStackTM that provides massively scalable cloud computing tools, their Converged Infrastructure technology that provides the integration support and Converged Management and Security technology that provides support for development, hybrid delivery, cloud management and security services. HP has also enhanced the open source OpenStack with additional services for life cycle management, continuous deployment, etc.

What are the advantages of using a converged cloud solution?

1. Reduce the overheads in managing your cloud infrastructure. Without adequate integration you are probably spending a lot just to keep the house under control. Better convergence would mean lower IT expenditures in the long run.

2. Leverage the strengths of different cloud implementations. Private clouds have better performance and security, public clouds are reliable and have better economy, and traditional enterprise infrastructure has sunk costs and supports legacy applications. By having a convergence layer on top of this, you could use the strengths of each setup.

3. Get better information flow across the enterprise. The convergence of different clouds allows better flow of information and that could lead to higher productivity and more informed decision making.

4. Manage security in a holistic way. Fragmentation and silofication increases the surface area of attack and makes it hard to monitor all the different entry points. By having a single security interface, it is easier to identify vulnerabilities and act effectively to fix the issue. You also have better control over your IT setup by having a single set of tools and policies to manage security across the enterprise.

In the next couple of years, I believe convergence in cloud computing will be a major trend and HP could be a leader in the segment. I would also like to see more standards emerging and better evolution of management services to reduce the hassles in integration.

By Balaji Viswanathan

Post Sponsored by HP  

The post Are You Overwhelmed By The Number Of Cloud Services To Manage? appeared first on CloudTweaks.

The Carbon Footprints of Cloud Computing

IT is a tool to reach environmental sustainability objectives which allow business entities to report, manage, analyze, and measure environmental data in order to manage risks and lessen their general impact. The kind of IT services and infrastructure chosen is part of the business entity’s carbon footprint which can control the growth and scale through time. Cloud computing is a solution which lessens hardware requirements, offers scalability, and provides reductions in carbon and direct energy emissions. It also provides efficiency to business scalability, processes, and improved collaboration and communication.

Although cloud computing can greatly lessen IT’s environmental impact, sad to say, cloud models differ in efficiency. Therefore, business entities can include environmental performance as a factor when considering taking advantage of the cloud computing benefits. An on-site IT infrastructure usually operates in extremely low levels of utilization unlike those which operates on a public cloud providing greater utilization rates, and scalability due to elastic provisioning and multi-tenancy. A private cloud can provide greater rates of utilization and elastic provisioning but compared to a public cloud, a public cloud can provide multi-tenancy which is important in carbon efficiency. A business entity must consider these factors before moving to the clouds because these can affect environmental value and business performance.

Migration to the cloud can provide significant and clear benefits in terms of carbon emission and energy efficiency. Cloud computing providers and their clients can obtain benefits from data and services management and transition to huge cloud environments. The transition will provide continuous improvement in carbon footprints and energy consumption. Cloud computing service vendors must be able to invest and select renewable energy sources to power their datacenters. Aside from that, they must be able to influence policymakers not only on the national scale but on the global scale as well. Not only can cloud computing have an influential role on a large scale, it can also provide IT sustainability by dealing with carbon footprints now.

In conclusion, a cloud computing provider must provide a cloud platform which can offer carbon efficiency benefits which are measurable. Through elastic provisioning and multi-tenancy, a service provider is able to support a large number of customers using just a few servers which must be efficient not only in architecture but in code design as well. When cloud computing customers grow continuously, it is expected than carbon emissions will have dramatic reductions.

It is expected that business entities will move their computing and data requirements to public clouds thereby re-allocating or retiring their servers. The potential savings are very possible when these companies take advantage of the opportunities and benefits of public cloud computing. Business organizations can embrace Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service which will allow any independent software supplier or business entity’s IT department to create cloud based software and run them on a highly effective and efficient infrastructure which will contribute positively to the IT ecosystem by reducing carbon footprints.

IT sustainability, through electronic media, must make a move towards having a lead role in reducing carbon footprints. Any improvement in methodologies is a welcome relief so that everyone can better understand the true impacts of technology on the environment. Cloud computing providers have a responsibility in ensuring that the model they are ascribing to are highly efficient so as to help reduce carbon emissions.

By Florence de Borja

The post The Carbon Footprints Of Cloud Computing appeared first on CloudTweaks.

Terry Bradshaw, Welcome to the Cloud

Why is Terry Bradshaw, a well-regarded yet far too publicized football legend, interloping into the cloud computing community? I understand that he is a jack of all trades, from the gridiron to the grocery store (he’s recently represented the wonders of the Nutrisystem diet plan). But the cloud? Seriously, what could this venerable figure know about the most important wave of technology to hit us this decade?

To be sure, Terry’s hosting of this program is not the first instance of the cloud commiserating with the silver screen. Television companies as prosperous as ABC, Netflix, Paramount, MGM, and — of course — Hulu have actually exploited cloud’s potential to maximize viewership of their small-screen programming for a few years now. Cloud computing enables these companies to place hot TV programs like “Desperate Housewives” or “New Girl” online for customers to view at any time, interspersing the content with ready-to-go commercials. The figures on viewership for online television via the cloud are staggering: a spike of at least 70 percent was reported as recently as 2008.

Apparently, Mr. Bradshaw is savvy enough to be hosting a television program dedicated to cloud computing. Called “Today in America,” this local Florida TV show will concentrate on the ways in which cloud has slowly but surely pervaded public opinion. And who better to host it all than good-ol’-boy Bradshaw, whose sunny mien should beam bright enough to sway even tech skeptics to the brighter side of the cloud.

Another merging of cloud computing and television has actually taken place online, through the regularly streamed broadcasts of Cloud Cover TV. The weekly program dispenses info on news relating to cloud computing, focusing on such issues as how Dropbox relates to its competitors, and also on how cloud computing is faring in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, not all cloud-television unions turn out to be so congenial. In fact, some corners hold that the cloud could eventually push television out completely as a prime way to access entertainment, news, and more.

Bernard Cohen, of CIO, recently wrote an article discussing the threat cloud computing posed to the future of television. ”If I can download shows at my convenience from services like Hulu or Netflix,” he wondered, “why do I need a local TV station between me and my content?”

The cloud is, yet again, dismantling a channel of access for entertainment. One way or another, TV will have to either cede to cloud computing, or enlist with it and adapt to its empowerment of TV’s most desired quantity — viewers like you.

By Jeff Norman

The post Terry Bradshaw, Welcome To The Cloud appeared first on CloudTweaks.

Swedish Collective Aims to Clean up the Cloud

Ten Regions set to Conquer Silicon Valley

A like symbol of Ice in Lulea, Sweden, where Facebook now is to build its new datacenter. The region is dubbed "The Node Pole" because of its ability to accommodate large datacenter projects reliably and efficiently just 60 miles (100 km) south of the Arctic Circle

Stockholm, Sweden – February 21, 2012 – A cold climate, clean energy and one of the most stable electricity grids in the world have made Sweden very hot property in the IT giants’ quest for datacenter locations in Europe. In October, the social network Facebook announced that it is to build its new datacenter in Lulea, Sweden, on the edge of the Arctic Circle. Environmental organization Greenpeace pushed the Like-button for this, thanks to the clean energy supply from Swedish hydropower sources.

Now, ten Swedish regions unite in an effort to attract more datacenters. Their hunt for future data storage investments will start with a circuit of Silicon Valley to meet with major IT companies. The Swedish government is supporting the initiative via its investment promotion agency, Invest Sweden.

“Other global companies examine the benefits of following in Facebook’s path discovering the economic benefits of establishing in Sweden and the quality of our energy infrastructure” says Invest Sweden’s Tomas Sokolnicki, Manager of the Swedish Datacenter Initiative.

According to Greenpeace Datacenters consume 1.5 to 2 % of all global electricity. The numbers are growing at a rate of 12 % a year.

“Cleaning up the cloud is a big challenge for IT companies – one of the fastest growing groups of energy consumers in the world”, continues Tomas Sokolnicki. ”We have available and prepackaged sites.”

Sweden has inherent qualities for larger server farms, such as low electricity prices, clean energy, resilient energy infrastructure, secure locations, a skilled workforce and developable land. The climate provides cool air all year round, crucial since cooling is a major issue for data centers.

Dark fiber access and low rates for high-speed connections are critical factors for IT companies. According to a recent study of 11 major business cities, Stockholm in Sweden offers the lowest rate for dark fiber ($383 per month) and among the lowest corporate rates for internet. The dark fiber rate in New York is $5,439 per month.

Source: InvestSweden.se

The Swedish Datacenter Initiative is a cooperation between 10 Swedish regions, corporate partners and Invest Sweden. Read more at www.investsweden.se. 

The post Swedish Collective Aims to Clean up the Cloud appeared first on CloudTweaks.

Icelandic Steam, French Bidding Wars: Europe and Cloud Computing in Early 2012

The European continent is — finally! — putting cash where its proverbial mouth is regarding the presence of cloud computing throughout the EU.

At Switzerland’s World Economic Forum, Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes announced that Europe is ready to pledge 10 million euro to a forthcoming European Cloud Partnership. Kroes believes with fervency that this Partnership will surmount such hurdles in the cloud’s being accepted as fear of data protection, legality concerns, and distribution of important general information on the cloud to small businesses.

Says Kroes, “I expect good progress in setting it up in 2012 and first results in 2013.” Thanks to Jennifer Baker at PC World for the tip.

Cloud computing works on the idea that a user’s data is stored and managed from a remote location. But what to do if that remote location overheats?

Such is the problem with many data centers which are critical to safeguarding the data that keeps the cloud afloat. British company Verne Global are looking to address this issue in game-changing fashion as they investigate Iceland’s potential role in cloud computing this year. Sub-sea cables has just been laid throughout the country, reigniting interest in Iceland’s capacity as a geothermal hotspot — ideal for Verne Global’s soon-to-be-mounted data center.

The chilly wind that blows through Iceland will be pumped through the center, keeping temperatures down and server efficiency high. Companies looking to “greenify” their image, while also transferring to the hip world of cloud computing, are likely to see Iceland as an ideal opportunity to plunge in. See The Australian for more information on this development.

Oh, the French. They may turn up their nose to new ideas longer than some other European communities, but once they’ve decided on the attractiveness of a notion, voila — they’re hooked. Here’s hoping that new developments hook them on cloud computing’s potential for their industries and business.

Orange, a principal telecommunications provider in France, just solidified its reputation at the vanguard of cloud in the country, citing its more than 3500 customers who’ve signed up with its Cloud Computing Services offering. Cloud also factors as a key component of its “Conquests 2015” strategy to win 500 million euro in revenue by that year.

Yet Orange is not alone in its cloud fanfare. Its French telecom rivals Vivendi and Dassualt Systemes are also vying for cloud computing supremacy, these two specifically jockeying for a state-funded cloud computing contract.

The French phrase in response to this sudden cloud hullabaloo: ooh la la.

By Jeff Norman

The post Icelandic Steam, French Bidding Wars: Europe and Cloud Computing in Early 2012 appeared first on CloudTweaks.