We fully appreciate that this is a controversial statement and one that many may disagree with. However, hear us out. We think that businesses that build their own data centres, rather than using the cloud, are consuming exponential amounts of power and in the process, producing a lot of pollution. Microsoft, for example, has stated that public cloud environments running applications on behalf of businesses can cut energy consumption and carbon emissions by 30% compared to an organisation that runs the same software on its own infrastructure.

So, moving to the cloud isn’t an entirely selfish act. When your cloud needs fluctuate, your server capacity scales up and down to fit, so you only use the energy you need and you don’t leave oversized carbon footprints. Compare this to the millions of pounds are spend each year adding infrastructure to support servers running under capacity. That wastes not only energy in usage, but also in the server’s creation, plus a whole lot of raw materials, too.

Using the cloud is a step in the right (even the green) direction.