Have you ever thought about your cloud storage’s impact on the environment? Like most people, I never considered the storage of my data or the negative consequences thereof. The cloud was an ephemeral entity that absorbed my data into lightweight nothingness. It turns out I was very wrong. As my tech prowess grew, so did my awareness of the true weight of the cloud. The good news is that it doesn’t take much to reduce your monthly costs and the carbon cloud footprint all at the same time.
How data inefficiency can quickly impact your bottom line and your carbon cloud footprint
Let me give you a common example I see. You have a company with 100 employees and use Google Drive for file sharing. You deal with a lot of marketing, which means you have video files averaging 200mb. Employees worry about causing harm to the original file, so they make a copy. This copy is only used for small edits or formatting. Now you have the same file on 10 drives. That means the weight of just one file has ballooned to consume 2 gigabytes of space! Play this out over 100s of files, over multiple months, and pretty soon your company has terabytes of redundant storage.
This small inefficiency might seem trivial at first glance, but consider this:
Cloud data storage costs
The Google Cloud platform cost of 1TB of data is $20 per month. As your redundant storage expands, so does the cost. This can translate to 100s or 1000s of dollars every year, unnecessarily.
Electricity usage and environmental impact of cloud storage
Cloud storage isn’t environmentally free. Data centers consume vast amounts of energy. One gigabyte of data produces approximately 3 kg of CO₂ and 5-7 kWh of electricity per year. That’s like fully charging your cell phone 600 times! This significant carbon cloud footprint contributes to global warming and environmental degradation. Digital storage isn’t going anywhere. Now is the time to focus on minimizing the impact.
AI and processing impact on your carbon footprint
The scanning of entire storage sets with AI is happening daily. Every redundancy adds computational time. The increased processing contributes to energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and monthly costs. With the rise of AI, there’s never been a more important time to have lean data practices.
To put this even more in perspective, most SMBs store thousands of gigabytes of data without realizing the energy and financial cost. 10 TB of redundant data is equivalent to powering 5 average US homes for a year all while emitting ~20 metric tons of CO2! Increasing your data efficiency means reducing costs and lowering your carbon cloud footprint.
What can you do about your inefficient cloud storage?
Most small and medium-sized businesses don’t realize their storage impact. The overlooked redundancies cost you time and resources. They can even go against your core values. These unnoticed issues can hinder growth, productivity, and competitiveness in the market.
Evergreen Analytics Partners offers solutions and insights geared toward SMBs. Our bespoke systems focus on your objectives and goals. We want to help you cut expenses, use less electricity, and reduce your carbon footprint. Our methods are realistic, immediate, actionable, and designed for efficiency.
More ways to reduce your cloud carbon footprint
For a deeper look at practical enterprise strategies, this guide from TechAhead outlines actionable ways to cut cloud-related emissions, ranging from workload optimization to architecture redesign.
Additionally, our ground-breaking technology, Petrichor, is in its second beta phase. Designed to identify and manage data inefficiencies, it’s one way we can combat the rise of heavy data. We’re looking for SMBs that want to be proactive with their storage. While in beta, you can try this novel software for free. Early users can impact Petrichor’s development and gain from its potent insights.
Ready to improve your data efficiency?
Evergreen Analytics Partners is here to assist SMBs. We will be your partner in sustainability initiatives. At the same time, we can cut expenses and streamline your data management procedures. Arrange your customized data audit or find out more about our consulting services. Get in touch with us today.
Your data doesn’t have to cost the Earth, or your bottom line.
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