The Green Cloud: Grounded Reality or Smoke and Mirrors?
Cloud computing is making broad strides across the technology industry as more small and midsize businesses (SMBs) find benefit in having their data stored off-site and in getting infrastructure, software, and even platforms delivered on demand. While the concept of the cloud is not new–Hotmail was one of the first widely adopted pieces of software-as-a-service (SaaS) back in 1997–what is new is the way the cloud is being sold. According to providers, this technology is naturally energy-efficient, inherently a "green cloud" that can save on energy expenditures. But is this the real deal or just greenwashing hype?
What’s Behind the Cloud Curtain?
A recent article at Enterprise Irregulars discusses a presentation given by Tom Raftery, in which he argues that cloud computing is not as green as SMBs are led to believe. While the technology expands on the data center concept that’s been around since the 1960s and certainly improves on its efficiency, Raftery’s contention is that very few providers are "chasing the moon" (i.e., actually making sure they take advantage of things like low-cost power at night or moving their services from data center to data center as power rates fluctuate across the globe and over the course of a day)…


The move to cloud computing is undoing a lot of the good work that IT managers have done over the past decade to enable solutions based on open standards that can be built, supported and replaced, regardless of vendor.