Cloud and energy, how sustainable is your business model?
What would you think if we told you that a new study from
Stanford University
found that every human being in his or her lifetime consumes about 75 gigajoules per year of energy? What if we told you that the average American uses almost four times as much? About 284 gigajoules, a huge amount. The figure should not shock you given that the United States consumes 17% of the world’s energy while representing only 4% of the population.
And if the individual citizen, too often, does not think about the so-called carbon footprint, many companies around the world have started to do so.
And digital infrastructure, without mincing words, contributes enormously to the use of energy. Cloud included!
So companies that find themselves evaluating and managing cloud costs will also have to consider the environmental cost and the potential damage to the planet. In a word: responsibility. Therefore, use Cloud services efficiently without waste.
So the question is: how do you know if your company is using the cloud as efficiently as possible, and how can you prove that the software you’re developing is efficient in the cloud?
Here are three basic rules to ensure continued cloud cost efficiency:
Pay and use only what is necessary. As we never tire of repeating, the Cloud is a scalable service. This means that we could compare it to a switch. And like a light switch it should also be turned off when not in use. And then as with separate containers for waste and recyclables, companies should not reserve large instances when a medium-sized instance is more than sufficient.
Understand the impact. Take advantage of tools that measure the carbon footprint of cloud usage. When a company has the ability to reduce its footprint, it saves money and impacts other business metrics, such as the cost of goods sold, employee satisfaction, and even customer experience. Experiment with different technical levers and see how they affect cloud costs, which will also lead to smarter choices.
Cultivate conscientiously. The consumption of Cloud services will increase as the company grows, but the question is: is it growing efficiently? With accurate forecasting and budgeting capabilities, businesses can take advantage of long-term savings plans and reserved instances with confidence. In addition, addressing cost anomalies quickly will contribute to stabilizing growth.
