Abstract-Cloud computing is an efficient way to provide IT capacity. From an ecological perspective, the use of cloud computing is usually assumed to entail lower consumption of energy and materials. However, it is difficult to assess whether this assumption is true. Cloud computing means shifting processing power from workplace computer solutions or the company server to the Internet. Yet it is comparatively difficult to determine resource consumption in the cloud. Previous studies have arrived at different results concerning the ecological benefits of cloud computing depending on the type of application. New cloud applications also cause additional resource consumption. Even today, cloud applications account for more than half of data centers' workloads. This share is expected to increase to more than four-fifths by the end of the decade. It is therefore doubtful whether IT energy and resource consumption can be reduced in the future. The present contribution considers this question and presents current research findings on the energy consumption of data centers, networks and end-user devices in Germany today and through 2025. It projects the findings from Germany to the global development and discusses the ecological effects of shifting processing power to networks and data centers through cloud computing.

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The number of Internet-enabled end-user devices such as personal computers, notebooks, tablets, smartphones, etc. is increasing constantly. However, since the devices themselves are becoming ever more energy-efficient, their overall energy consumption in the use phase of their life cycle seems to be increasing only marginally, or even decreasing in some areas. In contrast, the energy consumption induced in data centers by the use of end-user devices is rising. The present contribution presents the results of a Borderstep Institute study on the development of personal computers conducted within the framework of the research project AC4DC. Data was gathered on the number of workplace computer solutions in German businesses, the computers' energy consumption, as well as the energy consumption in data centers they induced. In 2014, electricity consumption in data centers induced by end-user devices amounted to between 17 and 49 kWh per end-user device and year. The contribution compares the results of this study with the data from a 2010 survey and projects the global significance of the use of Internet-enabled end-user devices on the energy consumption of data centers.

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