Energy-Efficiency in Cloud Computing Environments: Towards Energy Savings without Performance Degradation

Due to all the pollutants generated during its production and the steady increases in its rates, energy consumption is causing serious environmental and economic problems. In this context, the growing use and adoption of ICTs is being highlighted not only as one as the principal problem sources but also as one of the principal areas that could help in the problem’s reduction. Cloud computing is an emerging model for distributed utility computing and is being considered as an attractive opportunity for saving energy through central management of computational resources. To be successful, the design of energy-efficient mechanisms must start playing a mayor role. This paper argues the importance of energy-efficient mechanisms within cloud data centers and remarks on the significance of the “energy-performance” relationship in boosting the adoption of these mechanisms in real scenarios. It provides an analysis of the current approaches and the outline of key opportunities that need to be addressed to improve the “energy-performance” relationship in this promising model.