Green Cloud Computing

🌊💻 What if the future of cloud computing lived beneath the waves? In a breathtaking experiment, Microsoft launched Project #Natick - submerging a data center with 864 servers in a capsule off the coast of Scotland. Powered entirely by renewable energy from the Orkney Islands, the project showcased a sustainable and efficient approach to data infrastructure. !! Why underwater? ✅ Cooler Environment: Oceans act as natural coolants, reducing the need for energy-hungry air conditioning. ✅ Reliability: The sealed, oxygen-free environment significantly reduces hardware failure. ✅ Sustainability: Paired with renewable energy sources like offshore wind and tidal power, this unlocks a greener future for data storage. ✅ Proximity to People: Nearly half the world’s population lives near the coast — making underwater data centers ideal for reducing latency. What started as a daring question — “Can a data center survive underwater?” turned into an exciting proof-of-concept that challenges how we think about cloud infrastructure. 🌍⚡ Imagine the oceans not just as natural wonders, but as digital frontiers powering the next era of computing 🚀

🌍 Green IT in 2025: Saving the Planet or Just Your Budget? 💡 Google’s Nevada data center just slashed cooling costs by 40% using geothermal energy. But here’s the kicker: their carbon footprint dropped and they avoided $6M in EU carbon taxes. Green IT isn’t activism—it’s survival math. By 2025, 60% of tech firms will face fines for ignoring sustainability mandates (Gartner). The question isn’t if you’ll go green—it’s how without going broke. 🔥 Where Green IT Wins -> Microsoft’s underwater data centers use 90% less energy than land-based ones. -> Salesforce cut $12M/yr by auto-shutting down idle dev environments. -> EU’s CSRD now fines companies 2% of global revenue for poor carbon reporting. ☠️ The SME Trap Critics are right: Going green hurts if you do it wrong. -> A Series A startup spent $500k on solar-powered servers… then realized their code wasn’t optimized to use them. -> Fix: AWS’s Customer Carbon Footprint Tool lets smaller teams track emissions for free. Pro Hack: Migrate legacy apps to Google Cloud’s Carbon Sense regions (35% cleaner than on-prem). 🛠️ Green IT Hacks That Don’t Require a CEO Budget 1. Kill Zombie Workloads Tools like CloudZero find and auto-terminate idle cloud resources. Example: A fintech saved $220k/month by culling forgotten test instances. 2. Carbon-Aware Coding Schedule CI/CD pipelines during off-peak renewable energy hours. GitHub Actions now integrates carbon tracking for every PR. 3. Measure What Matters Track PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) in data centers. Use Microsoft’s Emissions Impact Dashboard to shame teams into action. 💥 When Green IT Backfires -> A crypto firm moved workloads to “green” servers but ignored inefficient algorithms. Result: Energy use spiked 300%. Lesson: Optimization > Location. Would you delay a product launch by 2 weeks to hit carbon targets? #GreenIT #Sustainability #TechTrends #ClimateTech #Leadership

The Netherlands is pioneering a new frontier in sustainable tech with floating data centres built directly in city canals. Instead of relying on energy-hungry air-conditioning systems, these data centres use the natural coolness of canal water to regulate server temperatures. Water flows through specially designed cooling panels, absorbing heat from the machines before being returned to the canal — cooled naturally again by the environment. The floating platforms are modular, meaning more units can be added as data demand grows. They can also be moved or relocated when necessary, making them flexible solutions for expanding digital infrastructure in densely populated urban areas where space is limited. Some are even powered by renewable energy sources, such as nearby solar roofs or wind turbines, making them almost entirely carbon-neutral. By drastically cutting electricity usage for cooling — traditionally one of the biggest energy drains in data centres — this bold Dutch innovation reduces both operating costs and environmental impact. The floating units are already being tested in cities like Amsterdam and Rotterdam, offering a glimpse into how future tech infrastructure might coexist more harmoniously with urban environments and waterways. #GreenComputing #SmartInfrastructure #DutchInnovation

⛅ The Cloud Analogy Series - Part 16: Let's talk about the concept of 'Green Computing' on AWS in the same way we'd think about powering a concert! You and your friends are at a music festival. The festival is huge and will need power for lights, sound systems, and food stalls. Traditionally, they might use big, noisy generators that burn a lot of fuel and create pollution. But what if instead, they could use cleaner, more efficient sources like solar panels or wind turbines? This is much better for the environment, and in the long run, can be more cost-effective and sustainable. Green computing is a lot like switching from those noisy, polluting generators to cleaner energy sources, but for computers and internet services. In green computing on AWS: 💚 Efficient Use of Resources: AWS uses technology to make sure that these computer resources are used as efficiently as possible. It's like making sure every bit of energy from your solar panels or wind turbines is used wisely, without waste. ⚡ Renewable Energy: AWS aims to power these computers with renewable energy sources, like wind or solar power, instead of traditional, polluting energy sources. This reduces the carbon footprint, which is the total amount of greenhouse gases produced. 💡 Reducing Electronic Waste: Just like you'd want to reduce waste at your festival by recycling and reusing materials, AWS tries to minimize electronic waste. They do this by efficiently using hardware and recycling it responsibly. 🏢 Data Centers Efficiency: AWS has special buildings called data centers where all these computers are kept. These buildings are designed to be as energy-efficient as possible, using advanced cooling and design techniques to reduce energy consumption. 🏗 Innovation for Sustainability: AWS continually innovates and invests in new technologies to make their services more sustainable and less harmful to the environment. We even have a 16th leadership principle that encourages all employees to make big decisions with sustainability in mind. Learn more about green computing and about a tool you can use with your customers to help them identify their carbon footprint. Check it out: https://lnkd.in/g3ehPkqc #aws #cloudcomputing #awscloud

📢 𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐭🚨 Our latest study “𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗲𝘁𝟬”, published in Wiley, sheds light on the utilisation of 𝗔𝗜 for 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 to enable 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗼𝗻 𝗡𝗲𝘂𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 to contribute towards 𝗡𝗲𝘁 𝗭𝗲𝗿𝗼 𝗧𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘀. 🤝 Kudos to Han Wang for leading it & thanks to co-authors:  Sunantha Kannan & Steve Uhlig 𝑯𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔: 1️⃣ 𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗲𝘁𝟬 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸: AINet0 uses 𝗔𝗜 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 models like neural networks and time-series models to manage resources effectively in the AWS environment, with the goal of improving 𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 and 𝘀𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 for carbon-neutral cloud services. 2️⃣ 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹-𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗘𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: The AINet0 framework is implemented using an 𝗔𝗺𝗮𝘇𝗼𝗻 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗲𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁-𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗯𝗲𝗱, and the experimental results demonstrate that the 𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗲𝘁𝟬 enhances forecasting accuracy allowing for more precise resource allocation. 3️⃣𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁: The AINet0 framework enables more sustainable and cost-effective operations that further support 𝗻𝗲𝘁-𝘇𝗲𝗿𝗼 𝗲𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀. 🔗 𝑳𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒍𝒆:  https://lnkd.in/eei3apyZ 🔗 𝑨𝑰𝑵𝒆𝒕𝟎 𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝑮𝒊𝒕𝑯𝒖𝒃:  https://lnkd.in/eECxKw2R 🔬💡 🤝 𝐿𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑠 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑢𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗼𝗻 𝗡𝗲𝘂𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝑬𝒅𝒈𝒆 𝑨𝑰 𝒔𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒎𝒔. #Cloudcomputing #Machinelearning #Sustainablecomputing #AI #researchpaper #computing #edge #Cloud #applications #IoT #computerscience #Research #industry #academics #journals #journal #qmul #postdoc #Scientificresearch #conference #PhD #university #publications #Computing #academiclife #ArtificialIntelligence #academia #engineering #Academic #NetZero Wiley In Research

The next era of datacenters is here. The demand for AI is growing rapidly, and with it comes the need to grow the cloud’s physical footprint. Historically, datacenters have been water-intensive and require using large amounts of higher carbon materials like steel. At Microsoft, we're building datacenters with sustainability in mind, and we're constantly innovating to find new ways to reduce our environmental impact. This includes: 🤝 A first-of-its-kind agreement with Stegra, backed by an investment from Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund (CIF) in 2024, to procure near zero-emissions steel from Stegra’s new plant in Boden, Sweden, for use in our datacenters. Powered by renewable energy and green hydrogen, Stegra's facility reduces CO2 emissions by up to 95% versus conventional steel production. By committing to purchase this green steel before it rolls off the line, Microsoft is sending a clear market signal, driving demand for cleaner materials and supporting Stegra’s growth. 💧 We also announced a major breakthrough to make our datacenters more sustainable: microfluidic in-chip cooling technology. Unlike traditional cold plates that sit atop chips, microfluidics brings cooling right inside the silicon itself. Engineers carve microscopic channels directly into the chip, letting liquid coolant flow through and absorb heat exactly where it’s generated. This approach is up to three times more effective than current methods. More efficient cooling allows datacenters to support powerful next-gen AI chips without ramping up energy use or investing in costly new gear. 💵 Through our CIF investments, we’ve catalyzed billions in follow-on capital for breakthrough solutions in low-carbon materials, sustainable fuels, carbon removal, and more. We just released a new whitepaper – Building Markets for Sustainable Growth – that distills five key lessons on how catalytic investment and partnership can move markets and accelerate a global transition in energy, waste, water, and ecosystems. Our journey toward sustainable datacenters is only beginning, and we recognize true progress requires collective action and investment. Read more from Building Markets for Sustainable Growth: https://msft.it/6041sq9xD