Migrating IT workloads to cloud can help Indian cos reduce carbon emissions: Report

The report, which includes over 100 survey respondents in India, estimates that if just 25% of the 1,200 largest publicly-traded Indian businesses put one megawatt (MW) of compute workload into the cloud, powered by renewable energy, it would save the equivalent of a year's worth of emissions from 160,000 Indian households. In addition, cloud service providers that tap into the local renewable energy market to run their operations in India can further boost carbon emissions savings.

Indian companies and public sector organizations can reduce their energy usage and associated carbon footprint by migrating their IT workloads from on-premises data centers to cloud infrastructure could, according to a new report commissioned by the Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The "Carbon Reduction Opportunity of Moving to the Cloud for APAC" report by 451 Research surveyed more than 500 private and public sector organizations across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, spanning a variety of industries across Australia, India, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea.

The report, which includes over 100 survey respondents in India, estimates that if just 25% of the 1,200 largest publicly-traded Indian businesses put 1MW of compute workload into the cloud, powered by renewable energy, it would save the equivalent of a year's worth of emissions from 160,000 Indian households. In addition, cloud service providers that tap into the local renewable energy market to run their operations in India can further boost carbon emissions savings.

According to 451 Research, the energy efficiency gains of cloud data centers came from their use of the latest, most energy-efficient servers, which typically run at higher utilization rates than on-premises data centers.

Cloud providers like AWS are committed to sustainability. The cloud major has taken several initiatives in infrastructure efficiency, renewable energy, water sustainability, electric mobility, sustainable packaging, as well as awareness-building, to fulfil its net carbon neutrality goals in India.

For instance, buildings across Amazon India's fulfilment network are designed with state-of-the-art technology and efficient building systems that minimize energy usage. Additionally, many of the company's large buildings are designed to be net water zero with multiple initiatives such as rainwater collection tanks, recharge wells to replenish water into aquifers and sewage treatment plants.

Chennai-based WEGoT Utility Solutions has developed a cloud-enabled water management platform on AWS. The platform can monitor water usage at a granular level, detect leaks remotely, and generate usage analytics and detailed reports to determine the optimum water consumption patterns in residential apartments and commercial buildings in India.

"Our scale and focus on innovation allow us to improve the efficiency of our data center operations faster than traditional enterprises. Apart from maximizing the efficiency of our operations to reduce the amount of energy needed to power our data centers, we're also working towards procuring 100% renewable energy for our worldwide energy needs by 2030 and are on a path to reach that milestone early by 2025," said Ken Haig, Head of Energy Policy, Asia Pacific and Japan, AWS.