Originally published at: https://endeavouros.com/news/the-cloud-and-the-environment/
In the past, we bought a roll of film to eternalise our precious memories of our loved ones, social events and holidays. Once the film was developed, we sorted out our photos in an album to archive and flip back whenever you felt nostalgic.
I’m not trying to convince you that those were the days that everything was better, although who remembers the excitement of picking up your envelope at the developers and flipping anxious to that photograph to see if it was taken exactly as you pictured it in your mind, whilst taking it?
No, nowadays your photos are immediately shown and then stored in the cloud. No more days of waiting for the results and no more dusty albums cluttering your space, instead they’re safely stored and out of sight in the cloud. That makes it all clean and sorted…………. or is it?
These days documenting is done at the touch of our fingertips and cloud storage is in reach for a very large group of people and when your storage has reached its capacity, you can expand it with a simple click and it only costs a little bit more than you were already paying.
Back in the days, people were more selective in taking pictures, simply because you weren’t able to buy a new roll of film at the location you were at or you didn’t want to spend more money on rolls of film.
These days we can take pictures or record private videos ‘endlessly’ and if your device is reaching its capacity, transfer it to the cloud and you can start again.
I’m not a saint in that respect either, but I suddenly started to realise recently that every time I increase my cloud storage, I’m demanding more power in order to make a server preserving my memories.
So I started to take a look at my files, photos and movies that were stored on several cloud services and I found a lot of documents that weren’t relevant anymore, photos and videos which I couldn’t remember why I was saving them or I did remember but the fun of its context lost its power through the years.
I started a digital clean up and stored everything in one single cloud service. Not only is it more efficient, but it also saves power for a server to run extra for your benefit. The power usage might sound insignificant as a single user, but just picture a warehouse full of servers consuming power, creating heat and then imagine the effect if everyone with cloud access would clean up their space once in a while, before increasing storage space.
Your home also needs a big cleaning up, from time to time, so why not your digital space? It clears your mind, it’s better for your wallet, but most of all it benefits this incredible planet we’re living on……
