You Can Build A Cloud Database Strategy That Is Environmentally Sustainable. Here Is How To Do It

Shifting to the Cloud can be profitable for businesses as it creates long-term value, enabling an enterprise to operate in an ecological, social, and sustainable environment

Moving to the Cloud can efficiently reduce 84 per cent of carbon emissions, as per the analysis by Accenture.

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While many enterprises have defined their Cloud database strategies, few understand the impact of that strategy on the organization’s environmental footprint. In recent years, most enterprises have come to realize that their technology choices play an important role in their environmental impact, and many have adopted more sustainable practices. As they’ve done so, they’ve realized that an organization can function in such a way that it supports the planet, while also reducing costs. 

Being purpose-driven gives organizations a competitive edge in the market and the advent of technology has provided several options to consider for sustainability, with the adoption of sustainable Cloud solutions at the top of the list.

Sustainability and Cloud

As open source mandates are becoming common in both the corporate world and in government, organizations are exploring their options for database models in the Cloud. In fact, according to IDC and DB-Engines, open source licenses now outpace licenses for legacy, proprietary databases.

As these organizations search for alternatives to their legacy databases, they are looking for several things:

• Can the open source database be used to build modern applications, while also supporting the option to migrate legacy applications to the Cloud?
• Can the database support both public and private clouds, and does it allow for a hybrid Cloud deployment model
• Can the database run the same way everywhere, including on-premises or in multiple public Clouds?
• Should the organization continue to manage the database internally, or move to a database-as-a-service (DBaaS) model?

Each of these scenarios has a different impact on a company’s environmental footprint, and if that is a factor for your organization, as it is for many, you should look carefully at all these options. Public clouds have gained popularity due to their ability to handle flexible workloads, improve server utilization, and for energy-efficient architecture that is often lacking in enterprise-owned on-premises data servers. Shifting to the Cloud is also a sustainable solution due to cleaner energy transitions, less material wastage, targeted R&D, and faster analytics platforms. 

In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2025 carbon emissions from hyper scale Cloud services will drive cloud purchase decisions. As sustainability issues and advocacy rise, its imperative organizations take steps toward constructing a sustainable cloud strategy. 

Moving away from on-premises data centers reduces carbon emissions 

Enterprises using on-premises databases may experience several challenges, including installation, back-up, and maintenance, and hardware management. Moreover, businesses spend a lot of resources updating and upgrading hardware and software, which requires additional power and cooling systems. Moving to the Cloud can efficiently reduce 84 per cent of carbon emissions, as per the analysis by Accenture. These reductions can be further realized if the applications are designed specifically for the Cloud. 

One open source database that is particularly well suited for the cloud is PostgreSQL, also known as Postgres. While many organizations have turned to Postgres to save costs, ensure business continuity, and gain flexibility, they are realizing that it has environmental benefits as well. Postgres was created in 1986 at the University of California Berkeley, as an open source project. Since then, a vibrant, innovative community has grown up around Postgres, and the technology caught up, or in some cases, surpassed that of legacy systems.

As organizations look at all the above factors, they are increasingly building new applications on Postgres in the cloud, as they migrate away from their own data centers. Postgres supports hybrid cloud deployments that can make moving to the cloud a much smoother process that happens over time. Additionally, new features are always being added to the code that make it easier for organizations to migrate legacy applications to Postgres.

Collectively, factors such as using less server space, efficient management of servers, and sustainable infrastructure in the Cloud are adding up to significant carbon reductions. 

Cloud data centres reduce power consumption and emissions

A well-structured data centre can adapt its hardware for power efficiency and reduce energy consumption while keeping heat generation at a minimum. Furthermore, these cloud data centres can be powered by a blend of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and more, along with non-renewable energy to further reduce their carbon footprint. The Cloud data centres can be optimised to use the infrastructure such as RAM, CPU, and network bandwidth before consuming any additional cloud resources.

The shift from on-premises to the Cloud can be daunting, complex, and costly. As such, enterprises should understand their cloud provider’s sustainability goals and evaluate their energy resources, consumption, renewable use, resource allocation, and effectiveness. Additionally, enterprises should determine how the provider reports and manages greenhouse emissions (GHG) to determine the partner’s sustainability maturity. 

They should also create a road map to help bypass avoidable problems with moving their databases to the Cloud, including selecting the right open source database. In short, shifting to the Cloud can be profitable for businesses as it creates long-term value, enabling an enterprise to operate in an ecological, social, and sustainable environment. 

 

The author is chief marketing officer (CMO), EnterpriseDB

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