How Dirty is Your Data?

Will companies such as Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Google and Yahoo! perpetuate the dirty energy issues of older, entrenched industries, or will the innovative IT sector band together to embrace a transformative business model that prioritises a future built on clean, renewable energy?

Throughout this report, we attempt to shed light on the state of the cloud’s energy footprint by examining available information about IT companies and their data centers.

First, we have attempted to explain and summarise the problem through examples of data centre investment and a graded analysis of the infrastructure choices of leading cloud companies.

We also assessed best practices and leading footprint mitigation strategies.

Finally, we have included some key recommendations for a sector that wishes to be seen as green and transformative, but is coming up short on it’s transparency and energy choices.