Does cloud co$t the earth?
By Daniel Tremayne-Pitter
Key themes: Economic and environmental cost of public cloud, repatriation
The Cloud is a technological phenomenon that has revolutionised what it is to be a human, a business, and a government. But it costs, and it costs more than we are led to believe.
Just a small scratch surfaces the contentious topic of return on investment. The perceived status of working with ‘cloud technologies’ in the 2010’s was irresistible, the status and the marketing push led many on a path of digital transformation. Infrastructure procurement became distributed to developers, and in many cases unregulated. A decade on, the bill arrived.
At a similar time, public awareness about climate change entered a new era of focus. A decade on, it’s now urgent. Net Zero by the year twenty something is bandied about by organisations and governments alike.
When we talk about the cost of cloud, it becomes apparent that we need a more holistic model of ‘cost’. This should incorporate both the economic and environmental costs. Today, these costs are talked about in different rooms by disparate business functions with varying priorities. Is this stifling actual progress in both topics? We believe it is.
Behaviourally speaking, individuals and teams naturally operate in ways that attract a higher status for their respective area of focus. Be it delivering business outcomes, optimising financial expenditure, or demonstrating carbon reductions. Delivering value is core to the way we all live and work. However, these often-disconnected initiatives can obfuscate the real cost of cloud deployments.
Understandably, the financial cost of cloud is a crucial factor for organisations to consider when procuring digital solutions. This is even more true considering that of 118 technologists, 90% stated cloud costs are rising, of which 35% claim the increase is higher than expected.[1] In other words, 6 out of 10 organisations claim cloud costs are higher than anticipated[2] and some are spending two and a half times more on the cloud than originally calculated. These spiralling costs are often driven by inefficient resource allocation, overprovisioning, underutilisation, or lack of operational control, which led to organisations wasting 32% of their cloud spend in 2022.[3]
Are these rising financial costs avoidable? In many cases experts believe yes, they absolutely are.
So, what about that ‘other’ cost? We’re seeing a rise in consciousness around cloud technologies impact on the biosphere. The staggering fact that just one data centre can use the same amount of electricity as 50,000 homes,[4]or that digital infrastructure is responsible for up to 3.7% of global greenhouse emissions.[5] With time no longer on our side, the concerning projection of 2,000 zettabytes of data being created by 2035,[6] becomes ever more sinister… time is running away from us as the consequences of our inexhaustive data consumption chomps at our heels. It is now inevitable that serious action needs to be taken to initiate a more conscious approach to the environmental costs of our digital infrastructure. Again, are these issues avoidable? Again, experts believe yes, yes they are.
It is at this point that IT culture needs to realise that what appeared to be two disparate issues are in fact fully entangled. Cost conscious decision making, and revisiting cloud strategies must become the prevalent trend for 2024 and beyond. With cloud exit becoming a genuine and increasingly viable path, we see more evidence and interrogable case studies begin to emerge. In fact, 47% of organisations are currently, or planning to, repatriate data back on-premises.[7] For many, hybrid cloud deployments are the logical path, giving better visibility to both economic cost prediction and clarity to carbon reporting which has been lacking from cloud hyperscalers to date.
This is inevitably a behavioural and cultural challenge that we must reckon with as we arrive in the new epoch of GenAI. What’s at stake? Everything.
Technology hype cycles come, and they go, the decisions we make hang around much much longer.
Our most recent documentary film ‘Clouded II,’ (in association with HPE) explores the topic in more detail. Watch the film at clouded.tv to delve deeper into the cost of cloud conversation.
The journey continues, and I for one hope that we can adopt new behaviours and learn to better harness technology with a level of altruism that can benefit both profits and the planet.
[1] HPE, Alletra Research Report, 2023
[2] Cody Singerland, 101+ Cloud Computing Statistics That Will Blow Your Mind (Updated 2023), CLOUDZERO,
23 August 2023 <https://www.cloudzero.com/blog/cloud-computing-statistics/?>
[3] Cody Singerland, 101+ Cloud Computing Statistics That Will Blow Your Mind (Updated 2024), CLOUDZERO, https://www.cloudzero.com/blog/cloud-computing-statistics/
[4] Hu, Tung-Hui. A Prehistory of the Cloud. Cambridge, MA: MIT press, 2015
[5] The Shift Project, “Lean ICT: Towards Digital Sobriety:” Our New Report On The Environmental Impact Of ICT,
6 March 2019 https://theshiftproject.org/en/article/lean-ict-our-new-report/
[6] Gerry McGovern speaking in Dark Matter, Clouded II: Does Cloud Cost The Earth? Film, 2024
[7] HPE, Alletra Research Report, 2023
