Microsoft data centers in Redmond, Washington
Two cloud giants are rolling out tools to help companies track and manage the carbon footprint of their data.
Both Microsoft and Google, two of the three largest data center users in the world, unveiled products and features this month that allow companies to monitor the environmental impact of their cloud usage and actively manage how much carbon it produces. The data center industry particularly hyperscale cloud providers is increasingly promoting such green initiatives as a growing number of corporate customers implement sustainability targets. If we look at one sector that can have a huge impact and has the will to do it and the resources to put into doing it, it is the cloud business, said Stuart Adler, a professor at the University of Washington’s Clean Energy Institute, speaking with ZDNet.