{"id":13181,"date":"2016-11-04T23:42:13","date_gmt":"2016-11-05T03:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/power-struggles-in-data-centers-how-amazon-web-services-turned-its-energy-challenges-into-opportunities\/"},"modified":"2016-11-04T23:42:13","modified_gmt":"2016-11-05T03:42:13","slug":"power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Power Struggles at Amazon Web Services"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the past few years, it has become the norm for tech companies to not own any servers and instead rely on cloud-based services to handle their data storage and computing infrastructure. A wide variety of companies such as\u00a0Netflix, Pinterest\u00a0and Airbnb\u00a0rely on AWS\u2019s suite of cloud services to manage all their IT infrastructure [1].<\/p>\n<p>To fulfill its customer promise of fast and reliable IT infrastructure services at low costs, AWS owns a large number of data centers throughout the world, each containing a huge number of servers.<\/p>\n<p>Data centers are huge consumers of electricity due to the immense energy required to power as well as to cool down the servers. On average, one data center consumes as much energy as 25,000 homes [2].<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 563px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/3tjgg82p9t5x33q15k3lwedm.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/edge_data_centers1.jpg\" alt=\"A data center typically has thousands of servers and huge power requirements.\" width=\"563\" height=\"225\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A data center typically has thousands of servers and huge power requirements.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Operations at AWS\u00a0are\u00a0affected by climate change in two ways: the mix of energy supplied to data centers and each center\u2019s power consumption.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Power Mix<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Traditionally, AWS did not pay much attention to its data centers\u2019 &#8220;energy mix&#8221; or the proportion\u00a0of clean energy used. In 2014,\u00a0a study characterized it as the least sustainable among all leading cloud providers with only 13.5% of its energy from renewable sources and no foreseeable renewable energy commitments [3]. Soon after, in November 2014, it announced a long-term commitment to 100% renewable energy and began investing resources in wind and solar power in regions where its data centers were located [4], [5].<\/p>\n<p>However, critics continued to berate the company for its power mix, in particular for its data centers in Virginia, aka the \u201cDirty North-East\u201d. These centers, which consist of 70% of all servers, consume only 4% of energy from renewable sources [6]. In this region, AWS was unable to use the energy from its solar and wind projects due to the nature of the power supply chain. Electricity from all sources, renewable and non-renewable, fed into a collective regional grid. The dominant retail provider, Dominion Virginia Power (DVP), purchased power from this collective grid and distributed it to consumers including AWS. DVP had full control over its energy source mix and predominantly used market forces to make the decision. AWS, hence, had no control on the energy mix for its data centers [7]. In June 2016, AWS entered into a first-of-its-kind energy services management deal with DVP. Through the deal, AWS agreed to purchase services from DVP that allow it to have a greater say in the power mix that DVP purchases and provides to the regional grid that services AWS data centers [8].<\/p>\n<p>Going forward, AWS will be under constant scrutiny for the power mix utilized by its data centers and it should strive to continue in its quest to power its data centers through renewable sources. Choice of data center location should also take into account availability of clean energy in the area.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Power Consumption<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While clean power\u00a0is important for AWS in the long term, it will not be feasible in the near term for\u00a0its upcoming\u00a0and existing centers; hence, power consumption of each data center is also crucial. AWS\u2019 operating model inherently requires that it constantly strive to reduce power consumption costs of a data center through increased server utilization and energy efficiency [9]. By\u00a0investing in more\u00a0optimized equipment, better cooling systems and better server management, the company can lead the way in reducing data center\u00a0power consumption [e.g. 10, 11, 12].<\/p>\n<p>At present, the company does not share any metrics on how its own data centers perform on power consumption\u00a0metrics [4]. Given its competencies in these areas and its push towards sustainability, this is an opportunity for the company to set an example for the rest of the industry and showcase its path towards a reduced carbon footprint. The organization should not shy away from regularly sharing metrics around its data centers\u2019 carbon footprints. There is a growing body of research in computer systems in reducing power consumption in data centers [e.g. 10, 11, 12]. \u00a0The company should take the opportunity to lead innovation in this sector\u00a0by\u00a0partnering with the other companies and the broader research community to further knowledge around ways to reduce carbon footprint of data centers.\u00a0Google for instance has already started to be a part of the conversation [13].<\/p>\n<p>In conclusion, in\u00a0the next few years, carbon emission management will become central to data center operation decisions for\u00a0AWS. \u00a0The company has already embraced climate change as a business opportunity.\u00a0&#8220;It\u2019s greener in the cloud&#8221; is its\u00a0claim that in choosing to use cloud services instead of maintaining their own local servers, organizations\u00a0not only gain from a business perspective but also help climate change [4]. To maintain its position as the leading cloud provider, AWS will need to step up and be a thought leader in this space.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Word Count: 792 words<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bibliography<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[1] AWS Case Studies,\u00a0https:\/\/aws.amazon.com\/solutions\/case-studies\/<\/p>\n<p>[2] J. Kaplan, W. Forrest and N. Kindler, &#8220;Revolutionizing Data Center Energy Efficiency&#8221;, <em>McKinsey<\/em>, July 2009.<\/p>\n<p>[3] G. Cook, T.\u00a0Dowdall, D.\u00a0Pomerantz, and Y.\u00a0Wang, &#8220;Clicking Clean, How Companies Are Creating the Green Internet&#8221;, <em>GreenPeace USA<\/em>, April 2014.<\/p>\n<p>[4] AWS and Sustainability,\u00a0https:\/\/aws.amazon.com\/about-aws\/sustainability\/<\/p>\n<p>[5] J. Barr, &#8220;Amazon Wind Farm Fowler Ridge is Live&#8221;,\u00a0<em>Amazon Web Services<\/em>, January 2016.<\/p>\n<p>[6] J. Ramsey, &#8220;Amazon to Build States Largest Solar Farm&#8221;, <em>Community Energy Solar<\/em>, July 2016,\u00a0https:\/\/communityenergysolar.com\/amazon-to-build-states-largest-solar-farm\/<\/p>\n<p>[7] L. Guevara Stone, &#8220;Amazon and Utility Strike Breakthrough Renewables Deal&#8221;, <em>GreenBiz<\/em>, June 2016,\u00a0https:\/\/www.greenbiz.com\/article\/amazon-and-utility-strike-breakthrough-renewables-deal<\/p>\n<p>[8] K. Tweed, &#8220;Amazon and Dominion Power Forge a New Renewable Energy Path in Virginia&#8221;, <em>Greentech Media<\/em>, July 2016,\u00a0https:\/\/www.greentechmedia.com\/articles\/read\/Amazon-and-Dominion-Power-Forge-a-New-Renewable-Energy-Path-in-Virginia<\/p>\n<p>[9] J. Barr, Cloud Computing, &#8220;Server Utilization and the Environment&#8221;, <em>Amazon Web Services<\/em>, June 2015.<\/p>\n<p>[10] L.\u00a0Luo, W.\u00a0Wu, D.\u00a0Di, F.\u00a0Zhang, Y.\u00a0Yan and Y.\u00a0Mao, &#8220;A resource scheduling algorithm of cloud computing based on energy efficient optimization methods,&#8221; <em>Green Computing Conference (IGCC), 2012 International<\/em>, San Jose, CA, 2012, pp. 1-6.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5\">[11] L.\u00a0Liu, H.\u00a0Wang, X.\u00a0Liu, X.\u00a0Jin, W.\u00a0Bo He, Q.\u00a0Bo Wang, and Y.\u00a0Chen, &#8220;GreenCloud: a new architecture for green data center,\u00a0<em>Proceedings of the 6th international conference industry session on Autonomic computing and communications industry session,\u00a0<\/em>ACM, 29-38, New York, NY, USA, 2009.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>[12] Beloglazov, Anton, J.\u00a0Abawajy, and R.\u00a0Buyya. &#8220;Energy-aware resource allocation heuristics for efficient management of data centers for cloud computing.&#8221; <i>Future generation computer systems<\/i> 28.5 (2012): 755-768.<\/p>\n<p>[13] Barroso, Luiz Andr\u00e9, and Urs H\u00f6lzle. &#8220;The case for energy-proportional computing.&#8221;,\u00a0<em><span class=\"booktitle\">IEEE Computer<\/span><\/em>, vol. 40,\u00a0<span class=\"year\">2007.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the past few years, it has become the norm for tech companies to not own any servers and instead rely on cloud-based services to handle their data storage and computing infrastructure. A wide variety of companies such as\u00a0Netflix, Pinterest\u00a0and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2271,"featured_media":14261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"class_list":["post-13181","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/climate-change-challenge-2016\/","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Power Struggles at Amazon Web Services - Technology and Operations Management<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Power Struggles at Amazon Web Services - Technology and Operations Management\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the past few years, it has become the norm for tech companies to not own any servers and instead rely on cloud-based services to handle their data storage and computing infrastructure. A wide variety of companies such as\u00a0Netflix, Pinterest\u00a0and [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Technology and Operations Management\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/aws-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"390\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"220\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services\\\/\",\"name\":\"Power Struggles at Amazon Web Services - Technology and Operations Management\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/4\\\/2016\\\/11\\\/aws-1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-11-05T03:42:13+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/4\\\/2016\\\/11\\\/aws-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/4\\\/2016\\\/11\\\/aws-1.png\",\"width\":390,\"height\":220},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Submissions\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Power Struggles at Amazon Web Services\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/\",\"name\":\"Technology and Operations Management\",\"description\":\"MBA Student Perspectives\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"性视界Action\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Power Struggles at Amazon Web Services - Technology and Operations Management","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Power Struggles at Amazon Web Services - Technology and Operations Management","og_description":"In the past few years, it has become the norm for tech companies to not own any servers and instead rely on cloud-based services to handle their data storage and computing infrastructure. A wide variety of companies such as\u00a0Netflix, Pinterest\u00a0and [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services\/","og_site_name":"Technology and Operations Management","og_image":[{"width":390,"height":220,"url":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/aws-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services\/","url":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services\/","name":"Power Struggles at Amazon Web Services - Technology and Operations Management","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/aws-1.png","datePublished":"2016-11-05T03:42:13+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/aws-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/aws-1.png","width":390,"height":220},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/power-struggles-at-amazon-web-services\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Submissions","item":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Power Struggles at Amazon Web Services"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/","name":"Technology and Operations Management","description":"MBA Student Perspectives","potentialAction":[{"@type":"性视界Action","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hck-submission\/13181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hck-submission"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/hck-submission"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hck-submission\/13181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}