Energy consumption in cloud computing environments

Abstract

Datacentres are becoming indispensable infrastructure for supporting the services offered by cloud computing. Unfortunately, they consume a great deal of energy accounting for 3% of global electrical energy consumption. The effect of this is that, cloud providers experience high operating costs, which leading to increased Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of datacentre infrastructure. Moreover, there is increased carbon dioxide emissions that affects the universe. This paper presents a survey on the various ways in which energy is consumed in datacentre infrastructure. The factors that influence energy consumption within a datacentre is presented as well.