Energy savings as Council joins the cloud

From the outset in 2014, Noosa Council was pioneering cloud-based technology. In fact, the newly formed Noosa Council was the first local government in Australia to fully transition its information communication technology systems to a cloud-based solution.

Now, thanks to a recent emissions audit, the Council has calculated that it is saving more than 70,000 kilowatt hours of electricity each year simply due to having its technology infrastructure hosted in the cloud. 

Cloud computing allows staff to access the same systems they could from an in-house server, but do so via a third-party server over the internet. 

With cloud-based technology, access is not limited to desktop PCs. Staff can access Council’s systems using tablet and smartphone apps while out in the field.

“By doing away with our own servers we’re saving a significant amount of electricity,” says Carbon Reduction Project Officer, Anne Nolan. 

“Plus, we don’t have maintenance or hardware upgrades to worry about. And nor do we need to provide 24-hour air-conditioning to keep the equipment cool.

“Hosted infrastructure environments can support a wide range of products and organisations simultaneously, offering significant economies of scale.

“Council also has energy-efficient settings enabled on all its desktop PCs to reduce their power consumption when not in use by turning off screens and hard-drives.

“These measures, together with being cloud enabled, save Council approximately 71,200 kilowatt-hours per year compared to a similar-sized organisation operating its own servers.

“That means a significant emission reduction and another contribution toward our goal of reducing our net emissions to zero by 2026.”

12 June 2017