Google is convinced that cloud computing is the way of the present and future, and has conducted a thorough study into the effects of using various Google services such as Google Apps. Google has discovered substantial savings in energy that could benefit organizations and more importantly, the environment as more people shift over to cloud computing in coming days.
Large organizations as well as smaller companies with in-house servers utilize a lot of power in terms of maintaining and cooling those servers. Additional servers are utilized for backup and as stand-by systems in case of emergencies. All these facilities increase the carbon footprint and pollute the environment at the generation source while raising energy bills for the end user.
Google’s detailed study on cloud computing through usage of Google Apps by its users has revealed that substantial savings in terms of energy consumption and money can be achieved simply by moving on to using applications such as spreadsheets, documents, and Gmail on the cloud.
Google provides an example of the US General Services Administration (GSA) that managed to reduce nearly 90 percent in energy consumption, 85 percent in their carbon footprint, and around $285,000 on their energy bills annually simply by moving all their 17,000 users over to Google Apps for the government.
Additional research by the Carbon Disclosure Project reveals that US companies could save around $12.3 Billion, European companies could save around 700 million Euros and companies in the UK could save around 1.2 Billion Pounds by 2020 by moving to computing on the cloud. In addition their carbon footprint could be reduced by millions of metric tons each year.
Google estimates that on an average an organization could lower its energy bills by around 65 to 85 percent by shifting towards cloud computing, which is quite substantial considering the additional savings in lowering their carbon footprint. If you too wish to confirm Google’s research findings then you can utilize various Google Apps on the cloud and help the environment while reducing your energy consumption and bills at the same time.