Microsoft announced the launch of new solutions and capabilities aimed at enabling users of its Azure cloud computing platform to take sustainability considerations into account in their cloud migration plans, and to manage and reduce the carbon footprint of their cloud usage.
The new product announcements include the incorporation of sustainability considerations into Azure Migrate, the company’s service aimed at helping IT infrastructure teams, cloud architects, and project managers to analyze factors when considering their organizations’ migration to the cloud. Currently in public preview, the new capabilities add carbon emissions analysis to the migration assessment business case, enabling users to compare on-premise with Azure emissions when building a cloud migration strategy.
In a blog post announcing the new features, Microsoft said:
“By speaking the language of both cost savings and carbon savings, Azure Migrate gives insights to help build consensus across stakeholders evaluating how their move to Azure could benefit both the business and the planet.”
Microsoft also announced the general availability of carbon optimization in Azure, a solution aimed at enabling continuous monitoring of the carbon emissions of Azure workloads, and providing emissions insights and recommendations to allow the incorporation of sustainability factors into daily cloud operations decisions. Key features of the carbon optimization capabilities include detailed data on carbon emissions from Azure usage, segmented by subscription, resource group, individual resource, type, and location, a carbon optimization dashboard integrated into the Azure management portal, and the ability to export emissions metrics for integration into reporting tools, dashboards, or sustainability systems.
Microsoft said that carbon optimization in Azure also works in tandem with its Azure recommendation service Azure Advisor to analyze resource utilization and provide AI-driven recommendations to reduce carbon emissions.
Microsoft added:
“Together, sustainability in Azure Migrate business case and carbon optimization in Azure create an end-to-end loop for sustainable cloud computing that ensures that sustainability isn’t a one-time consideration but a core part of your cloud journey.”
