Ugh woefully inadequate article. On a macro level the "cloud" represents a tremendous opportunity to reduce greenhouse emissions by consolidating many ineffici

Ugh woefully inadequate article. On a macro level the "cloud" represents a tremendous opportunity to reduce greenhouse emissions by consolidating many inefficient datacenters into fewer VERY efficient datacenters. The average 100+ person firm today probably runs their own datacenter, usually in a converted closet, floor, or other section of a commercial building. These locations cannot come anywhere close to matching the electrical and cooling efficiencies of large, professional datacenters. Secondly, by moving to "cloud" you can transfer electrical and cooling from high-cost areas to others. For example, a company located in the US Southwest would certainly reduce their carbon footprint by eliminating their datacenter and moving to a provider with a datacenter located in a cooler locale, preferably one powered by renewable resources. Then you get additional environmental savings by co-locating many tenants on a set of shared or virtualized hardware vs each company running their own underutilized primary and hot backup servers. Add in storage arrays, networking gear, UPS, generators, etc. and it's quite a difference.