Dark Matter: Clouded II Reveals the True Cost of Cloud

Technology researchers Dark Matter have launched Clouded II, a documentary exposing the economic and environmental cost of cloud. The feature-length film, sponsored by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, features industry experts questioning the cloud's impact on businesses and the planet.

Clouded II Director Daniel Tremayne-Pitter of Dark Matter said: "Cloud costs are spiralling, challenging 82% of organisations, and cloud is costing the planet. We wanted to expose the true cost of the cloud."

The film addresses the cost-saving expectations tied to software-on-demand, illustrating the reality of ballooning cloud bills. Dark Matter found that 90% of surveyed organisations report rising cloud costs and 35% said costs are rising beyond expectations. Dark Matter's research also finds 47% of enterprises moving or considering moving their IT back on-premises.

David Linthicum, former cloud strategy officer and author said: "People are waking up to the inefficiency of cloud computing with costs two and half times bigger than expected."

Clouded II also discusses the cloud's environmental impact. Featured expert Gerry McGovern said: "The growth of data is scary. By 2035 we will be producing about 2000 zettabytes of data. Typically, you store 10 percent of that, and need over a billion servers. You would need to cut down 20 trillion trees to print one zettabyte. We need to think about what we truly need."

In the film, experts discuss the impact of cloud enabled data hoarding, questioning data centres located in environmentally sensitive locations. They also question the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) metric used by companies to measure data centre efficiency, explaining the measurement does not account for the water and heat waste incurred by data storage.

Mark Butcher, GreenOps advocate at Posetiv Cloud, featured in Clouded II,: "Businesses spend billions storing data they don't need, and could reduce waste by 50% by eliminating redundant processes. Enterprise emissions could be up to 99% bigger than many businesses think."

Clouded II has launched on Clouded TV and is available here: https://clouded.tv/

Clouded II launches Clouded.TV, an online channel produced by Dark Matter supplying premium content about the cloud.

Survey methodology:

Dark Matter conducted a qualitative research survey with 118 technologists across a variety of industries, with participants ranging from C-suite to engineer level.

Sources

Charles Griffiths: The latest Cloud Statistics, updated October 2023
Steven Gonzalez Monserrat, Clouded II