Did you know data storage is one of the biggest environmental issues we have on our planet?
Data storage can take up a lot of our natural resources. Contrary to popular belief that it is floating around in a cloud or many clouds it is actually stored in massive physical data centres all around the globe. Data centres are huge warehouses full of racks of computer servers where information is stored. These data centres use a lot of electricity to power them; they then use a lot of resources to keep them cool as they generate heat continuously. Information is transferred or travels through physical underground cables. These include massive trunk cables that lie under the sea on the bed of large oceans.
Where are data centres?
Ideally, data centres are placed where they can be naturally cooled, Scandinavia hosts many large centres as their lower temperatures are perfect and surrounded by water for natural cooling. However, using water to cool heats up the water. Quite a few of the larger data producing interfaces that we may use, such as Facebook, Instagram, What’s App and TikTok etc have data stored in different areas all around the world. A random fact: Ireland’s data centres take up 20% of the entire country’s electricity use!
What data do you have?
Pictures, posts and messages: Every picture you take, post on social media and message you send is data. Depending on how your devices are set up these may not be stored locally on your device but sent to a storage account. All messages you send, not just the words you type, are surrounded by invisible data that gives them a date and time stamp and the IP information of where it was sent from and where it is sent to.
Website and emails: If you have a website the files for that site are stored somewhere on a server. This is often accompanied by email account storage too. Have you asked where your site is stored and how it is powered?
Environmental tick boxing
I think we have all probably turned our minds to whether or not are can mitigate some of our data use or how our businesses can be better at sustainability; printing out unnecessary paper, thinking about how far our supplies have travelled etc. I have switched all my clients’ hosting to UK data centres that are powered by 100% renewal energy. This project took over two years to complete and need the cooperation and patience of my clients. Once completed I felt like I had climbed a large mountain, but it was worth it to know I have done a very small bit. My clients were all pleased that I had made this decision on their behalf before they had requested it.
I also need to get better at my email and document storage, things that take up space that may not be absolutely necessary. Email filing and weeding is not a job any of us like doing, perhaps I should add it to my daily habits! Mike Berners Lee, brother of Tim Berners Lee, (founder of the internet) is a professor at Lancaster Uni and runs a company that helps organisations deal with the climate emergency. He says “although we make inroads to make data storage more efficient, we rely on more and more data as time goes on”, so the problem is going to stay with us.
I’d love to hear any ingenious steps you have taken to reduce your business data, drop me a not to info@kitewebdesign.co.uk.