There’s no need to own and maintain physical hardware, and no need to worry about disposing or recycling either. If you don’t need an onsite server, why go to the trouble of housing and powering one - go cloud.

As part of the shift away from buying and operating IT equipment, and instead consuming it as a service, you only use (and pay for) what you need. And no need to overprovision ‘just in case’ either: the cloud can expand or contract depending on your usage, meaning no computers sitting around idly.

As of mid-2020 there were 541 hyperscale data centres worldwide, with 170+ more on their way. And they all need uninterrupted energy (lots of it, in fact) for processing and cooling to do what they do. This limits the cloud’s sustainability.

Many of the big names are already ahead of other industries when it comes to reaching net zero targets – and they’re going further. Google has offset all historical emissions since its founding in 1998 and pledges to operate on completely carbon-free energy, 24 hours a day, by 2030.

Big cloud providers can be your best net zero friend – thanks to their scale and resources to shift market trends and help meet targets. Make sure you understand where your cloud provider stands - they will become part of your ‘Scope 3’ carbon footprint.

Moving your existing IT architecture into the cloud shouldn’t be a quick lift and shift exercise. Start from the beginning and re-engineer your services to make the most of the tools the cloud has to offer.

This way you can truly be cloud native – meaning more efficiencies, better services for your users, and a more sustainable use of tech all round.