Is There a Silver Lining for the Environment in Cloud Computing?

Grazed from ScientificAmerican.  Author: Ellen M. Gilmer.

Compared to familiar climate-saving programs that aim to stuff greenhouse gases into the ground or harness the power of the wind, ideas like "cloud computing" are hard to penetrate. Still, the practice is gaining attention as the information technology (IT) industry promotes it as a tool to save both energy and money.

Meanwhile, though, companies, environmentalists and consumers find themselves struggling with a new question: How do you measure the carbon footprint of a "cloud"?…

First there is the murky business of understanding exactly what cloud computing is. IT professionals use the term broadly to describe data processing operations that are outsourced to server farms, instead of being powered on-site (in the server room of an office, for example). For businesses, this could include websites or networks that are hosted remotely. For individuals, it could be Google documents, digital storage space and so forth…

Read more from the source @ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/environment-silver-lining-in-cloud-computing/