Cloud Data Centers: Power Savings or Power Drain?
Network Computing, February 7, 2014In a six-year span, one major laboratory has been the principal source of two contradictory reports on the power consumption of cloud data centers. The most recent report concludes that moving to the cloud saves energy, yet close inspection of the data reveals that virtualization — not the use of the technology in the cloud — is behind power reduction.
In 2007, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warned Congress that the power draw from cloud data centers appeared to be doubling every five years. At that rate, cloud data centers would be adding more stress to the nation’s power grid than new citizens being added to the population.