1. International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering & Technology (IJECET),
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ELECTRONICS AND
ISSN 0976 – 6464(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6472(Online), Special Issue (November, 2013), © IAEME
COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY (IJECET)
ISSN 0976 – 6464(Print)
ISSN 0976 – 6472(Online)
Special Issue (November, 2013), pp. 239-243
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IJECET
©IAEME
Green Cloud Computing
Bhavik Agrawal
Computer Engineering, BKBIET, Pilani, Rajasthan, India
bhavikagrawal@gmail.com
ABSTRACT: Cloud computing is an internet based computing which relies on sharing
computing resources rather than having local servers or personal devices to handle
applications. Cloud computing provides different computing services (e.g. networks, servers,
storage, applications, and services) that can be accessed over internet with less maintenance
and less management efforts. But normal IT equipment uses more energy if companies will not
shift to green computing. This paper focuses on the ways to shift on green cloud and it benefits.
KEYWORDS: Cloud, Cloud Computing, Green Cloud Computing, Management, Virtualization
I.
INTRODUCTION
Green computing is the study and practice of environmentally sustainable computing which
includes e-waste management and also reduces resource use.
Similarly green cloud computing focuses on environment, with cloud computing, provides
services that runs on vendor’s system which helps in minimizing the cost of building other
infrastructure and services to run, hence also makes a green and clean environment. Cloud
computing allows us to run (programs, services) at high utilization of resources; an
introduction of the paper should explain the nature of the problem, we can use fewer number
of computers. This allows us to have higher utilization, saving on environment cost of building
those computers [1]. As the energy demand in computing is increasing, the methods for the
efficient use of energy are needed. In this paper we are going to explore how virtualization will
help in building a green cloud computing and CLEER model which will help to make a green
cloud computing environment.
II.
GREEN COMPUTING
Green computing, also known as green technology, is responsible for use of computers and
related resources keeping eco-friendly environment. It includes central processing units (CPU),
servers and peripherals as well as reduced resource consumption and proper disposal of ewaste (harmful gases and heat).
International Conference on Communication Systems (ICCS-2013)
B K Birla Institute of Engineering & Technology (BKBIET), Pilani, India
October 18-20, 2013
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2. International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering & Technology (IJECET),
ISSN 0976 – 6464(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6472(Online), Special Issue (November, 2013), © IAEME
Environment eco-friendly infrastructure is need. Energy Star, first voluntary labelling program
started by United States towards green computing. It was conceived by Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) in 1992 to promote energy efficiency in hardware of all kinds. Most IT
department have initiated some projects or adopted various techniques to reduce the
environmental impact of their IT operations.
The major problem faced by an organization while implementing energy efficient and ecofriendly technologies is the difficulty in measuring saved energy, effective cost. Therefore, the
Green Grid, a global consortium of organization come out with one of the best way to reduce
environmental impact that is virtualization. Virtualization is technique to run applications and
software virtually.
III.
VIRTUALIZATION
Virtualization provides a platform for optimizing complex IT resources in scalable manner.
This makes the cloud computing cost effective.
Virtualization refers to the creation of virtual version of device or resources, such as a server,
storage device, and network, operating system where the framework divides the resource into
one or more execution environment. Virtualization consists of a system administrator that
combine physical system into VM in best energy efficient manner.
In a research based on five setup scenario, on premise with no virtualization; on premise with
virtualization; colocation with no virtualization; private cloud and public cloud, found that on
site server with no virtualization will emit about 46Kg of CO2 per year. The figure will touch 2
Kg if a person using a public cloud confirming to best practice [2].It can be concluded that
running business applications and services on cloud can be more carbon and energy efficient
compared to running it locally. It has been found that IT industry energy consumption is 2% of
the global energy usage [3]. Moving towards virtualization and using cloud services will reduce
the energy consumption.
System virtualization creates many virtual systems within a single physical system. So working
on virtualized system resources which are run by Hypervisors are used. A hypervisor is a
software or/and firmware that provides a virtual machine and provide direct access on
underlying hardware but within some constrained. Fig.1 shows virtualization with hypervisor
OS.
Fig. 1: Virtualization with hypervisor OS
International Conference on Communication Systems (ICCS-2013)
B K Birla Institute of Engineering & Technology (BKBIET), Pilani, India
October 18-20, 2013
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3. International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering & Technology (IJECET),
ISSN 0976 – 6464(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6472(Online), Special Issue (November, 2013), © IAEME
There are two types of hypervisors: Type 1 and Type 2.
Type 1 hypervisors run directly on the system hardware. Type 2 hypervisors run on a host OS
that provides virtualization services. Fig. 1 shows types of hypervisors.
Fig. 2: Type 1 and Type 2 Hypervisors
According to a new research from Pike Research [4], the global market for green data centers
will grow from $17.1 billion in 2012 to $45.4 billion by 2016.This is necessary in green cloud
computing point of view to less power consumption.
IV.
CLEER MODEL
Cloud Energy and Emission Research Model (CLEER) is an open access model for accessing the
net energy and emissions implications of cloud services at different levels of market
acceptance. This model aims to provide full transparency on calculations and input values
assumptions so that its results can be duplicated and its methods and data can be refined and
improved by research community.
According to CLEER model, moving common application and code such as email, spreadsheet,
and CRM software to the cloud will save a large amount of energy. According to the research by
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Northwestern University, it was found that the
amount of energy that can be saved is 87% or 326 petajoules [5], roughly 23 billion KWh that is
enough electricity needed to power Los Angeles for one year.
International Conference on Communication Systems (ICCS-2013)
B K Birla Institute of Engineering & Technology (BKBIET), Pilani, India
October 18-20, 2013
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4. International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering & Technology (IJECET),
ISSN 0976 – 6464(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6472(Online), Special Issue (November, 2013), © IAEME
To widely access model using cloud services it was developed using Google AppEngine. In
addition to energy analysis research community, it is also useful to those in the business and
policy communities who want to understand the environmental implication of shifts to cloud
services.
A. U.S. Case Study
In the U.S. study, there were three common business software applications which were chosen
for analysis in the CLEER model and assessed the technical potential for energy and emissions
savings that might be realized if these three software applications were fully shifted to the
cloud across the U.S. workforce [6]. There chosen applications were email, productivity
software, and CRM software which are most commonly used software applications at
workplaces.
Table 1: Comparison of energy use and emission, present day versus cloud-based
software system
International Conference on Communication Systems (ICCS-2013)
B K Birla Institute of Engineering & Technology (BKBIET), Pilani, India
October 18-20, 2013
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5. International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering & Technology (IJECET),
ISSN 0976 – 6464(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6472(Online), Special Issue (November, 2013), © IAEME
According to the report as shown in Table 1, a comparison is being made between how much
energy consumption, a cloud based software system and present day system make.
V.
CONCLUSION
Green computing leads to many difficulties in establishing the energy efficient system but it has
great impact on environment. A large amount of energy can be saved using cloud for running
business applications. Shifting on cloud helps to reduce infrastructure cost, maintenance cost
and also helps in making a green environment.
Using virtualization to run business applications and accepting, improvising and optimizing the
CLEER model will save high percentage of energy.
VI.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I thank Ms. Sonam Mittal from Department of Information Technology, B. K. Birla Institute of
Engineering and Technology, and Taniya Siddiqui, a friend for their useful comments and
language editing which have greatly improved the manuscript.
REFERENCES
[1] Jan Kremer, “Cloud Computing Virtualization” (White paper on virtualization).
[2] http://cloudtimes.org/2012/10/28/how-green-is-cloud-computing-new-study/ .
[3] Koomey,J.G.(2011),Growth in Data Center Electricity Use 2005 to 2010 AnalyticsPress,
Oakland, California.
[4] Pike Research article on green data center (cloudtimes.org/2012/10/01/green-datacenter-market-pike-research).
[5] CLEER model (cleermodel.lbl.gov)
[6] Report from CLEER Model (crd.lbl.gov/news-and-publications/news/2013/study-movingcomputer-services-to-the-cloud-promises-significant-energy-savings), 6.
BIOGRAPHY
Bhavik Agrawal was born in Dholpur, Rajasthan, India in 1992. He is
pursuing the B.Tech degree in Computer Engineering from B.K. Birla
Institute of Engineering and Technology, India. His current research interests
focus on the green cloud computing.
International Conference on Communication Systems (ICCS-2013)
B K Birla Institute of Engineering & Technology (BKBIET), Pilani, India
October 18-20, 2013
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