Source : Procurement Leaders
Greenpeace International has accused technology giants including Apple, Amazon and Microsoft of using “dirty energy” to power their cloud computing services
The pressure group’s report, How Clean is Your Cloud? alleges that there is a growing split within the tech industry between companies that are taking steps to power their clouds with clean energy, like Google, Yahoo and Facebook, and companies like Apple, Amazon and Microsoft who are said to lag behind by choosing to build their growing fleets of data centres to be powered by coal and nuclear energy.
The report evaluates 14 IT companies and their electricity supply chains of over 80 data centres based on key elements needed to build a clean cloud.
“When people around the world share their music or photos on the cloud, they want to know that the cloud is powered by clean, safe energy,” said Gary Cook, Greenpeace International senior policy analyst.
“Yet highly innovative and profitable companies like Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft are building data centres powered by coal and acting like their customers won’t know or won’t care. They’re wrong.”
Greenpeace points out that, as more people around the world use the cloud to store and share photos, videos, and documents, IT companies have to build more data centres – some of which use as much electricity as 250,000 European homes. The report research found that if the cloud were a country its electricity demand would currently rank 5th in the world, and is expected to triple by 2020.
“While many IT companies have made great strides in efficiency, that’s only half the picture – they need to make sure their energy comes from clean sources,” said Gary Cook, Greenpeace International senior policy analyst.