Storj Finds Distributed Cloud Storage Reduces Carbon Emissions by Up to 83% Compared to Other Providers Over a Three Year Period

Storj, the leader in enterprise-grade, globally distributed cloud object storage, today released the findings from its sustainability whitepaper on the environmental impact of cloud storage. The report, produced by the Storj team and reviewed by academic researchers, identifies the carbon costs of traditional cloud storage in centralized data centers and presents a model to estimate carbon savings from using Storj compared to hyperscaler and centralized clouds.

The demand for cloud storage is growing exponentially, as is the insatiable need for reliable, secure, and performant cloud storage. The rise of AI, which requires large datasets for machine learning, is exacerbating the problem. Centralized providers like Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud rely on expanding data centers, which account for 3% of all electricity generated on Earth. According to Greenly, data storage centers are responsible for 2% of global carbon emissions when you include all devices that make use of data storage.