I watched a Panorama documentary by Richard Bilton. Ever wondered where our junk mail, photos or emails even sit… The Cloud. The impact on the environment is relentless, as Richard demonstrated to run these data centres it requires a lot of our resources. Much of it is water, something we all take for granted.

Based on the research conducted, it is clear that councils are, in part, placing short-term monetary gain over prioritising long-term sustainable impact. But we have an opportunity as a human nation or to do better, to be better, to model the behaviour for next generations. ‍

Outside of the enterprise based solutions, because simply put, yes, data centres should take ultimate responsibility when creating such a service and putting it in the world for consumption. However, with years of technology flowing and having created a substantial carbon footprint, it would be great to have a double-sided solution, so that enterprises and consumers. ‍

For enterprise:
1. By placing data centres in areas with cool temperatures or using natural cooling techniques, energy consumption can be reduced.
2. And one of the most obvious solutions is Cloud service providers sharing their sustainability goals with the public. Measuring environmental goals and reporting their progress towards achieving those goals. ‍

For us:
1. An optimisation app which cleans up your data across your phone and desktop. Everything from photos to emails. Checking in with you every quarter to ask if you’d like a clean-up. Simply put, this would optimise your storage systems to avoid storing redundant data, compressing files to reduce storage requirements, and deleting old data to free up space. (Enterprise could also include this as apart of their service).

By implementing these solutions, we can reduce the environmental impact of cloud computing while still enjoying the benefits of technology. ‍