Cloud Providers Work To Lessen ESG Impacts Of Big Data

With 400 hours of video being uploaded to YouTube every minute and fleets of self-driving cars mapping high definition 3D maps of roads all over the world, data is being created, stored and processed at a rate never seen before. Ninety percent of the world's data has been created in the last two years, according to IBM and other industry sources, and with new data hungry applications on the rise (autonomous driving, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence), there's no sign of this trend abating. Organizing, storing and processing all that data comes with not only business, but also environmental challenges. In fact, networking and telecom equipment maker Huawei has estimated that global computing power could consume as much as 20% of global electricity in 2025 and account for 3.5% of global emissions.[1] All this data processing also requires large amounts of water to keep servers from overheating - roughly 1.8 liters for every kWh consumed - according to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).