A research study, 'The Enabling Technologies of a Low-Carbon Economy - a Focus on Cloud Computing’ funded by the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) and Microsoft estimates that if 80 percent of enterprises in Brazil, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Indonesia, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and the UK migrated their email, CRM and groupware applications to the cloud they would reduce annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by the equivalent of 4.5 million tonnes of CO2. This represents about two percent of ICT’s contribution to GHG emissions in those countries and is equivalent to taking 1.7 million cars off the road.
The report estimates that vendors supplying cloud-based email, CRM and groupware could do so with one twentieth of the GHG emissions compared to enterprises delivering these services themselves. And it is not only large enterprises that can make a significant contribution by migrating their applications to the cloud: small and micro size firms accounted for over 60 percent of savings.
With the focus on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) across corporations, mid-size business and growing companies alike, Australian businesses have a unique advantage when it comes to cloud adoption and responsibly managing the impact of data centres.
A variety of renewable resources, green energy options and competitive pricing make it easier for Australian businesses to get a “green” boost.
For Australian businesses cloud adoption addresses “green IT” strategy long-term, it reduces operational costs and it also redefines a company’s impact on communities and the environment.
The study was part of a broader GeSI research project looking at the potential of ICT to enable the transition to a low-carbon economy, entitled “SMARTer 2020: The Role of ICT in Enabling a Low-Carbon Economy”. It demonstrated how the increased use of ICT could cut the projected 2020 global GHG emissions by 16.5 percent, some 9.1 gigatonnes of CO2, and save $1.9 trillion in gross energy and fuel savings.
However, despite these benefits, GeSI says that barriers continue to slow the mass adoption of cloud services, and of a broader range of ICT solutions. It is using the findings of the studies to “strongly encourage policy makers to embrace the enabling potential of ICT across all levels of government.”
There is a sense of urgency to this. In his foreword to the study, Ray Pinto, Government Affairs Director at Microsoft, said: “We need to act faster...industry and government must come together to sharpen policy and overcome resistance points in behaviour. The study signals a deadline of three years to cut through the issues otherwise the continued uncertainty to embrace cloud computing will halve absolute benefits from 4.5Mt CO2e to 2.3Mt CO2e.”
The report concludes that prime responsibility for driving the market adoption of technologies that can abate GHG emissions, such as cloud computing, lies with the ICT industry. To accelerate the migration to the cloud, it urges major vendors to complete six actions:
- Employ smarter approaches to present a clear economic case for cloud.
- Support the economic case of cloud-services with clear impartial evidence of its GHG abatement credentials.
- Acknowledge that adopting cloud services may require clients to change deeply ingrained behaviours (especially IT directors and their teams).
- Respond to the challenge of behaviour change with evidence and tools to make it easy for customers to switch to cloud, leaving them incentivised to stay not coerced or worried about covert lock-in.
- Avoid one-size-fits all marketing approaches; instead approach specific market niches with communications that address the unique unmet needs and the ‘pain points’ which each niche feels.
- Embrace the principles of disruptive innovation. By avoiding a premature rush to mainstream markets, vendors can grow to mainstream market penetration through niche marketing.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Stern Curator
Quelle/Source: WhaTech, 25.07.2013
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