Energy consumption can be reduced by up to 20% if data is handled correctly (WITHOUT reducing the existing amount of data)

The uncontrolled data growth is up to 40% per year

Although the energy consumption per gigabyte is basically decreasing, this effect fizzles out because of the exponential data growth.

Moving data to the cloud creates additional energy consumption. Cloud usage does not lead to a reduction in the amount of data, but to its multiplication!

The percentage of ROT (unnecessary) data in organizations is between 50-80%.

The reduction of data growth reduces CO2 emissions massively, with a simultaneous reduction in costs; if ROT data is reduced, there is a huge savings potential.

Data management should be included as an ESG factor in the evaluation of companies

B. Wildhaber

Update: The topic has also arrived in Bern: Interpellation by Jürg Grossen (GLP, 29.9.23) :

Rapid data volume growth: Managing data volumes and energy consumption – need for action?

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Introduction to the whitepaper

In the omnipresent digitalization hype, it is usually forgotten that data also require or waste energy. While only lurid topics like the energy consumption of cryptocurrencies appear in the press, the energy consumption of an average organization seems to be of no interest. But if you look at current trends, you see that there is huge untapped potential in terms of both energy consumption and costs.

Data economy is not only a requirement of data protection law or information security, but has now also advanced to become an environmental factor. In this white paper, we present and become the interrelationships of data volume, data growth, and energy consumption, and pay particular attention to the associated implications for ESG factors.

Download the whitepaper by B. Wildhaber.