Shrinking glaciers, dried-up lakes, polar bears left stranded: global climate change is increasingly destroying our livelihoods. Impressive, but also frightening images are provided by Google Timelapse, which shows in fast motion how landscapes have changed over the last 40 years. The mission is clear: taking action as quickly as possible to reduce our environmental footprint.
Society, politics and, above all, the economy are therefore challenged. The EU’s Fit for 55 program, for example, lends weight to this issue. It includes directives aimed at reducing the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030, compared to 1990 levels, and making Europe climate neutral by 2050. ESG reporting, which imposes dedicated sustainability reporting on companies, also underscores the urgency.
Digitalization can contribute to this in many ways. It makes it possible for companies to use climate-friendly technologies – such as climate-neutral data centers for modern cloud solutions. In addition, it also provides numerous tools that indirectly help to reduce CO2 emissions. For example, special apps can help users make office environments more sustainable by using fewer resources. Or – as implemented by Google1 – search engines can highlight environmentally friendly products, making it easier for users to find them.
At the same time, however, customers and employees2 are also demanding more climate- and eco-friendly products and services from "their" company. The pressure for action from various stakeholder groups is growing, which is why digital solutions that deliver results in the short term are increasingly in demand.
Energy supply is an important factor in reducing CO2 emissions. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this accounted for 34 percent2 of greenhouse gas emissions in 2019. Savings at this point therefore make a very quick impact. Cloud and data centers play a special role here. But many companies still operate on-premises data centers, whose inefficient IT components and costly air conditioning increase energy requirements. Public cloud solutions are one step ahead: their providers, such as Google, pay particular attention to the energy-efficient operation of their cloud data centers.
According to a recent Gartner study3, public cloud providers are working hard to implement a transparent climate strategy over the next three years. Cloud services are especially environmentally friendly thanks to the consolidation of data centers, the use of renewable energies, energy-efficient hardware, and improved cooling systems – the key words here are: Green IT.
Flexible scalability also ensures an optimal use of resources, which reduces energy consumption compared to conventional systems. In addition, cloud hyperscalers in particular are investing in intelligent automation and AI to analyze and further minimize environmental impacts. The multi-tenancy architecture of the cloud allows hardware to be shared – this way, servers are optimally utilized and energy is used more sparingly.
However, many companies are still hesitant to put their business data into public clouds.This is where the sovereign cloud comes in. It enables high data security by allowing companies to maintain control over their sensitive data and minimize potential security risks. It also better meets specific compliance requirements, which is particularly important for highly regulated industries such as health or finance. In the sovereign cloud, data is kept locally, which accommodates data protection aspects and latency-sensitive applications. This control in turn leads to greater customer confidence and transparency. All these benefits make the T-Systems Sovereign Cloud powered by Google Cloud an attractive and, at the same time, green option for companies that want to participate in the sustainability benefits of the cloud, and additionally expect increased control over their data and better compliance.
Our sovereign cloud ensures that data and infrastructure are protected and regulatory requirements are met. Digital sovereignty is based on three pillars:
Only the combination of these three pillars enables companies to independently manage and control their data, software, and operations. This strengthens their ability to act autonomously in the cloud and to consciously rely on environmentally friendly structures. And so they reach the fourth pillar: sustainable sovereignty.
1 Google 2023, sustainability.google
2 Insights: Climate change: the CFO’s perspective, Deloitte, 2023, deloitte.com
3 Drei Nachhaltigkeitstechnologien für die Zukunft, Gartner, 2022, datacenter-insider.de
