Damn it, this isn’t an actual survey, it’s Accenture’s take on Cloud = greener computing. I’m going to leave it up tho becuase I think they are right and they do share some data on ESG business benefits. I might delete this tho.
Sustainable cloud positions companies to deliver on new commitments: carbon reduction and responsible innovation. Companies have historically driven financial, security, and agility benefits through cloud, but sustainability is becoming an imperative.
of CEOs in the United Nations Global Compact - Accenture Strategy CEO Study on Sustainability see a net-zero future for their company in the next ten years.
Between 2013-2019, companies with consistently high environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance enjoyed 4.7x higher operating margins and lower volatility than low ESG performers over the same period.
Drivers like greater workload flexibility, better server utilization rates, and more energy-efficient infrastructure all make public clouds more cost efficient than enterprise-owned data centers.
Migrations to the public cloud can reduce CO2 emissions by 59 million tons per year which equates to taking 22 million cars off the road.
As importantly, cloud migrations also unlock new opportunities like clean energy transitions enabled by cloud-based geographic analyses, material waste reductions from better data insights, and targeted medical R&D as a result of faster analytics platforms.
Migrating toward a greener cloud
Not all cloud migration approaches are created equal. Sustainability benefits will vary based on these three things:
1. Select with purpose
The first step towards a sustainable cloud journey begins with selecting a carbon-thoughtful provider. Cloud operators set different corporate commitments towards sustainability, which in turn determine how they plan, build, power, operate, and retire their data centers.
2. Build with ambition
The journey toward a sustainable cloud involves three ambition levels:
The graphic below indicates the incremental levels of carbon reduction that can be achieved—the greater the ambition, the greater the reduction in carbon emissions.
On-Premise Enterprise IT-Footprint
3. Innovate further
Companies can unlock greater financial, societal and environmental benefits through cloud-based circular operations and sustainable products and services.
The greenest cloud
Companies beginning their cloud journey confront a number of questions. The decisions they make will directly determine how sustainable their solutions are and the benefits they drive. Those that choose wisely will gain unprecedented levels of innovation leading to both a greener planet and a greener balance sheet.