EC News DeskIn line with the World Environment Day Theme of 2022, “Only One Earth”, it has never been clearer that we only really have one chance to heal it. While governments across the globe are on a mission to save the environment, the UAE has made some great strides in championing climate action through its sustainability initiatives as well as its upcoming hosting of COP 28 in 2023. As both the public and private sector begin to take more action, we know that we are on a path towards real change.
Yet there is an invisible threat to our environment that is often overlooked. As the leaders in enterprise data protection, we’re here to highlight that the unprecedented amount of ‘dark data’ – data that is not used in any manner to derive insights or for decision making – is growing in copious amounts and is set to cause a real threat to our environment if it is not adequately dealt with by business leaders.
According to our Databerg research, 52% of all information stored by organizations is considered dark data, and storing it resulted in 6.4 million tonnes of CO2 unnecessarily pumped into the atmosphere in 2020.
The good news is that data storage is becoming greener today, with many data centre firms increasing their use of green energy to fuel their operations, as well as improving their storage density. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can also play a key role in optimising data centers to make them more efficient and ultimately use less energy.
While modernizing the data center is surely helpful, businesses can also make a big difference by simply taking control of their data, reviewing the storage policies, and ensuring they’re not housing information that is no longer needed. By taking these steps to understanding our data better, we can really help reduce dangerous emissions.
