Cloud Sustainability

As more organizations become reliant on technology and cloud computing to deliver goods and services (1, 2), the impact of data centers on the environment has become central to the sustainability conversation (3, 4). Over the same time that cloud usage has increased, reports of climate change have led to government regulations aimed at remediation. More attention is being paid than ever before to harmonizing our appetite for technology with our need for a healthy planet Earth.

FinOps and Cloud Sustainability have natural alignment, as optimizing resource cost often involves a corresponding reduction in usage that reduces carbon emissions. Just like in FinOps, Engineering teams are a critical part of usage optimization efforts, as they make infrastructure decisions that drive both costs and carbon emissions.

Core FinOps Capabilities such as Architecting for Cloud and Workload Optimization also highlight the alignment between FinOps and sustainability. Organizations should leverage the connective tissue that FinOps teams have sewn across Finance, Procurement, Engineering, and Product teams to achieve their sustainability goals.

Read more about how cloud providers are supporting sustainability efforts, and how FinOps and ESG professionals can collaborate.