Data is the world’s most valuable resource, but it’s far from scarce. The digital transformation of the modern world, and the rise of new technologies has led to the production of incredible volumes of data. Some experts believe, by 2025, we’ll be producing 463 exabytes of data each day.
While much of this data has value, helping companies to make strategic growth decisions, deliver better customer service, or boost efficiency, it has a cost. Managing, storing, and processing vast volumes of data requires significant energy. Every data center, computing system and data storage device has an impact on the environment.
As global leaders around the world work towards “net zero” initiatives, focusing on reducing the impact human beings have on our planet, companies are being forced to rethink their approach to data management. Here’s your guide to the impact sustainable data management will have on the future of green IT, and eco-friendly business operations.
The Environmental Impact of Data
Data, like software, and cloud-based technologies, is frequently overlooked by businesses investing in sustainable IT initiatives. The most common reason for this is that business leaders are misinformed about the potential impact data can have on the planet.
IT leaders often believe the energy footprint of software and data solutions is negligible, or pre-optimized. They often focus instead on strategies that revolve around replacing inefficient hardware, where the results of an initiative seem to deliver more transparent results.
These misconceptions around the impact of data processing on the planet have prompted many companies to operate without any constraints at all. Countless companies believe they can consume and use as much data as they like, without any negative environmental impact.
It doesn’t help that data storage, in general, is quite cheap. Businesses can store up to 50 terabytes of data in the cloud for around $1,500. This level of storage, however, equates to an average carbon cost of around 1.3 metric tons for every year of usage. To put that into context, the average person in the United States creates 14.5 metric tons of carbon waste every year.
The problem is set to get worse in the years ahead. Companies are investing heavily in new digital technologies and solutions that thrive on the use and management of data. Every data-driven interaction between an application and device comes with an energy cost. Multiply this cost by the billions of interactions that will take place every day, and emissions will sky rocket.
What is Sustainable Data Management?
To reduce their environmental impact, and adhere to changing regulations and legislation around the world, many organizations are implementing ESG initiatives, and new strategies for green operations. Typically, conversations around sustainable IT and data management focus on hardware.
Companies have begun to consolidate data centers, invest in energy-efficient data storage products, and partner with innovators using more eco-friendly materials. Demand for sustainability has already given way to the rise of green data centers and “eco-friendly” SSDs.
However, focusing on hardware alone isn’t enough. While there’s no doubt hardware will become more efficient in the years ahead, thanks to the new commitments made by leading technology brands, this won’t eliminate the sustainability issue. Energy consumption will continue to increase, along with emissions.
True sustainable data management requires companies to think about how they can reduce waste and emissions in every stage of the data lifecycle.
Virtually everyone involved with the data landscape in the modern business world has a part to play. CTOs can invest in environmental sustainability by making eco-friendly solutions a requirement for software development. Software developers can reduce carbon emissions by being more aware of the energy impact of the tools they produce, and the methods they use to communicate.
Even business leaders can rethink how they manage, collect, and process data, to reduce the impact this information has on the world around us.
Why is Sustainable Data Management Important?
The evolving threat of climate change has prompted countless countries to begin elevating their commitments to ambitious sustainability targets. More than 70 countries have already made commitments to achieving “net-zero” emissions. Additionally, over half of all Fortune 500 companies have said they plan to reduce their emissions by 2030.
The data and software footprints of companies will only increase in the years ahead, as technology becomes more advanced. Embedding sustainable data management practices into business processes is one of the best things companies can do to combat climate change.
However, the benefits go further than you might think.
Most organizations can benefit from implementing strategies to manage and store their data more effectively. Many companies have hundreds of terabytes of data in their ecosystem. Learning how to use this data effectively doesn’t just protect the environment, it also reduces operational costs, inefficiencies, and improves a brand’s reputation.
Taking a sustainable approach to data management helps companies to reduce their carbon emissions and environmental impact, while reducing the costs of paying for storage for unnecessary data, managing legacy hardware, and handling complex processes.
Plus, according to Deloitte research, sustainable initiatives can help organizations to attract and retain the attention of critical investors. 70% of corporate leaders now say that pressure from investors is the key factor pushing them to focus on climate protection initiatives.
The Steps Involved in Sustainable Data Management
Sustainable data management is a relatively broad concept. It describes the comprehensive methods and procedures companies use to store, process, and gather data in a way that helps to protect the environment. Making progress on sustainable data management requires a multi-faceted approach.
Companies need to go beyond simply choosing green hardware and data centers. They also need to find ways to reduce storage waste and make data processes more efficient.
Let’s look at some of the key factors influencing sustainability in the data landscape.
1. Hardware in Sustainable Data Management
As mentioned above, hardware is one of the first areas many companies look at when attempting to embrace the benefits of IT sustainability. While it’s far from the only area worth considering, it’s still an important part of a comprehensive approach to reducing carbon emissions.
For instance, the energy consumption of client devices like mobile phones and tablets increases with their use of RAM, and a rise in network traffic. Moving business logic processes to the server side, particularly when a server is optimized for energy consumption, can reduce the energy needs of hardware, and cut down on charging sessions.
IT leaders can also decrease the pre-requisites for end-user devices. The production of a simple mobile phone can lead to 50kgs of CO2 emissions. The more companies can reuse, recycle, and retain their existing hardware, the lower their carbon footprint can become.
Sustainable design policies for data centers are also valuable. Data centers today can draw power from a range of sustainable sources, from wind farms to solar panels. Companies who work with data center vendors who focus on environmental protection can minimize their carbon footprint.
2. Reducing Storage Waste
A significant percentage of the money and energy spent on managing data comes from storing vast amounts of information. It’s easy for companies to assume they can simply push terabytes of data into the cloud without any negative repercussions.
This makes cleaning and refining data less of a priority for many companies. However, waste should be a significant concern in data storage. The energy consumption of a procured storage solution remains the same no matter how much storage or data is used. Making sure you use as much of the capacity available to you as possible for the right data, and procuring no more than you really need is a priority for achieving true sustainability.
There are various ways to reduce waste and improve storage efficiency. For instance, companies can take advantage of data compression, thin provisioning, and deduplication strategies. Snapshots can be useful for frequent updates, and allow companies to restore data that’s accidentally overwritten. These techniques can even be supplemented with the use of efficient virtual machines.
3. Optimizing Data Networks and Transmission
The efficiency of networks has also become a major concern for companies investing in sustainable data management. Internet traffic has doubled every three years since 2016, as more people log onto the web, and take advantage of the cloud. Data centers play a significant role in this new world.
Every single bit of data transmitted to an end-user device results in five bits of data transmitted between data centers. Transitioning to a cloud-based service environment provides companies with the ability to deduplicate data, and even serve information from local mirrors, rather than transporting information from various points in the world.
Additionally, future public cloud data centers will be more likely to run on renewable energy. Major cloud leaders have already shared their plans to embrace newer technologies and improve infrastructure utilization. As a result, migrating to public cloud services could reduce carbon intensity by up to 84% in the years ahead.
Of course, improving the efficiency of networks will require companies to retire some old-fashioned technologies, and embrace newer trends. Copper wires, 2G and 3G networks and similar solutions will rapidly be replaced with 5G and fiber networks in the years ahead. This will allow data workloads to become more efficient, while improving internal productivity.
4. Ensuring Efficiency in Workload Management
While sustainability is becoming an essential concern for board members and chief executives, it’s not always the first concern for Chief Information Officers, focused on achieving greater levels of scalability, cost reductions, and speed.
This means rising energy consumption from the ongoing increase of data collection and storage is outpacing the efficiencies offered by hardware and software optimization strategies. One potential way to address this issue is to make developers responsible for managing the use of critical card infrastructure. Cloud workloads can be optimized when developers work with sustainability in mind.
The key to success is first making sure developers are aware of the power consumption costs and carbon emissions created by procuring storage. Fortunately, companies are beginning to help with this, Microsoft even created a sustainability calculator to help users track the causes of high levels of carbon emissions.
Advances in artificial intelligence can also help companies to measure and optimize sustainability more effectively. Some companies are even embedding AI into data processes with a focus on reducing carbon emissions. For instance, Google’s new carbon-intelligent platform shifts non-urgent computing tasks to times of the day when wind and solar energy are most plentiful.
5. Automate Data Actions by Policy
Once you have greater visibility into your data landscape, and a strategy for monitoring key metrics on usage, you can begin to act. In many companies, around 60% of data is “cold”.
This means it goes into storage, and isn’t touched for months. This cold data is low-hanging fruit for a structured data management solution that offers tiering for durable secondary storage, reducing the number of extra back-up copies you create of crucial information.
To ensure data management sustainability, companies also need to ensure they have the right data retention and deletion policies in place. All companies have compliance guidelines to adhere to when it comes to storing data. Ensuring you know when you can eliminate unnecessary data means you can act quickly to refine and clean your databases.
It’s even possible to set up automated workflows, which allow for the movement of data to different environments throughout its lifecycle. Not only does this save energy and reduce utility bills, but it can also save companies thousands on data storage and backup costs.
Creating a Sustainable Future for Data Management
Building an effective strategy for sustainable IT and green operations requires companies to think about more than just the hardware they use and the companies they partner with. Software and data consume energy on a consistent basis too.
While cloud computing solutions, AI-driven tools, and automation are helping to improve the efficiency of data management, businesses need to take a comprehensive approach to minimizing their footprint. While data storage and management processes will become more efficient in the years ahead, you still need the right policies and strategies in place to ensure you’re taking full advantage of the innovations available.
Remember, embracing true sustainability isn’t just about supporting the common good. It’s also the key to preserving your business reputation, reducing costs, and increasing efficiency.
