Energy Sustainability in Azure

Ever thought about energy sustainability within your data centers? Data centers, including Azure, account for roughly 2% of the electricity use in the United States. Interestingly, this number has stayed constant despite the growing demand for cloud services. Why is this?

Microsoft, along with other cloud providers, continually innovate to reduce the amount of power it takes to run their data centers. They use technology like artificial intelligence to make the cooling systems more efficient. Microsoft even built an underwater data center last year to reduce cooling needs.

Recently, Microsoft committed to making its company carbon net zero by the year 2030. Part of this is working to make all their data centers fueled 100% by renewable energy by 2025. To reach this goal, Microsoft has lined up deals with solar and wind power companies around the world.

But Microsoft is not only making their own data centers use renewable energy, they’re also contributing a billion dollars to a climate innovation fund. In addition, they're offering Azure credits to sustainability researchers to move this sustainability to other companies.

How does this pertain to you? One of the benefits of Azure cloud services that we mention is the cost savings since Azure data centers are running on a large scale and a lot of time has been spent making their data centers very efficient and cost effective – the same is true when it comes to energy sustainability.

A recent study showed that switching from an on-premise solution to Azure cloud services could save as much as 93% more energy and reduce carbon emissions by up to 98%. Azure released a new Power BI application for Azure enterprise customers called the Microsoft Sustainability Calculator. This tool provides new insight into carbon emissions data associated with Azure services. 

If you’re a current Azure customer, you can connect to your account and see how much carbon is attributed to your usage, as well as the amount that Microsoft has reduced your carbon footprint.

Microsoft’s commitment to sustainability is clear and I expect to see more tools for customers, as well as more innovations in data centers. If you’d like to learn more about Microsoft’s energy saving efforts or to learn more about getting the cost and energy benefits of migrating to the Azure cloud, you’re in the right place.

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