With the climate crisis looming and current state of the world, many organisations have environmental sustainability goals at the top of their agenda. There’s a growing urgency from organisations to limit the emissions that are causing a rise in global temperatures. In turn, business leaders are looking to promote a greener planet by changing processes and increasing efficiency in terms of energy consumption.
Many businesses are evaluating the impact of their current IT activity on the environment and sourcing solutions that will help reduce carbon emissions while still serving their business. Cloud-based solutions can be key for sustainability goals, as there’s evidence that they’re helping reduce organisation’s carbon emissions and improving energy efficiency.
For example, using Microsoft Azure can increase energy efficiency by 93 per cent per cent and reduce carbon emissions by up to 98 per cent, according to a study conducted by Microsoft.
Approximately 2.5 per cent of global emissions come from end-user computing (EUC) and 83 per cent of that percentage is produced in the manufacturing stage, according to research conducted by the University of Warwick.
It’s clear that the impact of IT on an organisation’s carbon footprint can’t be ignored, and EUC device replacement strategies are a huge area of opportunity when it comes to shifting towards a more sustainable approach.
The damage these emissions can cause underlines the responsibility of businesses to choose smarter and more sustainable tech options. When it comes to sustainable approaches, many look to desktop-as-a-service (DaaS).
Less infrastructure
Companies have traditionally replaced user hardware (like laptops and desktops) with new devices typically every three years to ensure that performance levels are maintained. However, I believe the maintenance and renewal of this equipment is often a waste of budget – with many replacing employee devices unnecessarily and at a high cost to the environment.
DaaS helps to reduce the amount of hardware used as people can connect to the system from any device, regardless of its age. This increases endpoints’ lifespan and allows people to work from anywhere using a laptop and without the need of local networks or physical desktops on office sites.
Additionally, companies can leverage clients for DaaS that effectively allow IT to turn aging devices into modern, cloud-based devices.
This allows them to extend the lifecycles of their devices and hardware investments while supporting IT teams with modern management and observability via the cloud.
Using just the right number of devices for the services being ran will reduce energy consumption. DaaS helps to facilitate this by ensuring only necessary devices are in use, helping to contribute to IT equipment efficiency.
Improved energy performance
Right sizing a user’s device is a difficult task – even more so in larger organisations with lots of different personas. MSPs and their customers can leverage DaaS to support with this, as it can help to scale cloud resource up or down depending on demand. In practice, this involves only powering cloud storage on and off when needed to save power, and the capability to share resources amongst users.
DaaS solutions can host thousands of clients and millions of users. They also help organisations monitor use patterns to better predict usage fluctuation. This capability is key to leveraging cost efficiency and predictability because MSPs can evaluate cost reduction strategies aligned with their budgets – and ensure resources are allocated exactly where needed for their customers, without using more than necessary.
Greener data centres
MSPs are looking to keep data safely stored and maintained without draining IT budgets and emitting lots of environmentally damaging emissions, while still serving customers. Overall, it’s challenging to manage high-performance servers that meet all data storage and management needs in owned premises and still offer a competitive service.
However, the hyperscale data centres used to power large cloud providers can monitor every little element such as power, lighting, or air conditioning. This can reduce energy usage compared with on-premises architecture.
Overall, I believe DaaS technology is essential to achieving a green planet. MSPs need to evaluate their current tech’s contribution to emissions and consider whether DaaS could operate as a feasible alternative. Adopting DaaS as part of an offering to current and new clients can not only contribute towards business success, but also supports the world’s sustainability goals in the process.
This article appeared in our March 2023 print issue. You can read the magazine in full here.