The unprecedented growth of IT
As we have seen in the previous chapters, IT has an impact on the environment but also leads to a series of direct and indirect impacts. The entire ICT sector emits around 3-4% (UN Environment Programme n.d.) of global greenhouse gases, and data centers account for 1-2% of global electricity use and greenhouse gas emissions (Kamiya 2021). It will significantly increase the environmental impact unless we find other, more sustainable ways to deliver IT.
In the last decade, we have seen massive growth in internet traffic and data center workloads. We have observed a two-fold increase in internet users and a 15-fold increase in global internet traffic (Kamiya 2021). Fortunately, due to significant improvements in energy efficiency, the energy to power data centers worldwide has remained flat at around 1-2%. Figure 3.1 illustrates the growth in internet traffic between 2010 and 2020, data center workloads, and data center energy use:
