The hidden environmental cost of cloud waste

We all remember the original premise of cloud computing. You can run your datacenter more efficiently, you do not have to buy the head room in your datacenter to cater for spikes and you can only use what you need, when you need it, from a much more efficient provider. Win-win-win. Fast forward two decades and the sheer convenience of cloud, the complexity of management, and its relentless pursuit of the next big thing, has meant that cloud consumers are wasting tremendous amounts datacenter capacity, and with that emitting tons of carbon.

Cloud waste is a growing problem

It is estimated that on average about 30% of cloud spend is wasted. This could be anything ranging from incorrectly sized compute resources, to dark data and legacy systems. This report estimates that 52% percent of business' data in the cloud is dark data, and IDC estimated the total amount of wasted storage in 2025 to be upwards of 91 zettabytes. What all that has led to, is that cloud is now emitting more carbon emissions than the airline industry, and with the rise of AI cloud will most likely become the worlds biggest energy consumer.

Ownership is with the user

Of course humanity has gotten a lot of innovation from cloud in return, and even if we tried to go back, (and some companies are trying to go back to their own data centres) the horse has bolted. Cloud vendors have not made it easy to spot your waste, partly by design. Their lack of insights on your data means you get a more secure experience. With the FOCUS cost management framework there is some positive movement in this space, but the onus is still remains on the customer to action it.

Automation, culture and metrics

The only way to get back to the original promise of cloud, is relentless automated optimization, combined with creating a culture of efficiency throughout the business. This is why we felt the need to found Optimaze, because all existing tools in the market do not come close to achieving this. Many enterprises have an intention/project/half-year-goal to reduce cost, but this is simply not going to lead to sustainable cloud usage. There are too many recurring activities when it comes to cloud management and teams have disparate goals. You need a platform to tie it all together, and provide measurable benchmarks at an individual team level.

By focusing on automation and creating a culture of efficiency, you will eliminate cloud waste in the process. This is likely to have one of the biggest impacts your business can have on its carbon footprint in 2025. Improving your profitability in the process should make it a key focus.