34 of >1,000,000 customers asked about energy use
Amazon Is Urged to Come Clean on Energy Use
Cloud-computing clients are seeking details on electricity consumption, renewable-energy goals
By
ROBERT MCMILLAN
June 3, 2015 9:41 p.m. ET
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Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp., which also maintain large cloud-computing operations, have provided this information. But Amazon hasn’t, said Gary Cook, a Greenpeace analyst.
“Amazon is really an outlier,” Mr. Cook said. “All of the other companies provide at least basic information on their operations and give you regular updates showing their progress over time.”
Amazon contends that Greenpeace is focusing on the wrong problem. The real power-wasters are hundreds of thousands of smaller data centers spread all over the planet, Amazon vice president and distinguished engineer James Hamilton wrote in a recent blog post. He said they don’t have the benefit of technology used by the big cloud companies to minimize the amount of time data-center equipment is idle. Computers in smaller data centers spend a much smaller percentage of their processing time—typically 10% to 20%—doing work, he said. The percentage is several times higher in Amazon’s data centers, Mr. Hamilton wrote.
However, experts say the issue isn’t so simple.
“It is true that Amazon’s servers are much more highly utilized than traditional servers,” said Jonathan Koomey, a research fellow at Stanford University who studies data-center power efficiency. “But that’s not the whole story,” he added. The source of the electricity and the amount of electricity that is used for noncomputing functions such as cooling are important factors, too. Amazon trails competitors such as Google in those areas, he said.
In an emailed statement, Amazon said that it was expanding its green options with deals such as a recent power purchase agreement that will introduce wind power to the electrical grid used by Amazon’s data centers. “AWS customers have already shown environmental leadership by moving to cloud computing, which is inherently more environmentally friendly than traditional computing,” Amazon said.
Other signatories of the Amazon letter include HR Boss, a cloud-based human-resources software company, the nonprofit Creative Commons, and petitions website Change.org.
In all, 34 companies have contacted Amazon with questions about its energy use, including the 19 who signed last week’s letter, according to Amazon. Amazon said it has about 1 million cloud-computing customers.
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