Digital sufficiency of cloud usage in flexible work

Abstract

In the finite world of resources, we thrive on using cloud technology in daily life while the flexible mode of work increased dependency on cloud more than ever. Although the cloud offers rapid and flexible working scope, it consumes energy and resource through the expanding data centers. Superfluous usage of cloud technology can be minimized through simple tactics towards rational cloud usage in daily professional life. This thesis aims to analyze the impacts of applying these tactics while using the cloud during flexible work. The methodology involves a questionnaire survey conducted among practitioners followed by experiments to measure energy or resource consumption of applying the tactics. Survey results discover participants' perceptions about practicing the tactics in daily work life. Based on survey responses, experiments are performed on the highest preferred two tactics. Both tactics proved to be effective to decrease resource consumption. However, energy consumption is measured only on the client side for one tactic and the reduction is not significant for all cases. Since this research emphasizes rationalizing the regular usage of cloud, it provides scope to decrease energy-related carbon emissions and thus, contributes to achieving environmental sustainability.