We’re proud to share some exciting news: Cloudar has achieved the AWS Small and Medium Business (SMB) Competency—a recognition that highlights our deep expertise in helping SMBs leverage the power of AWS to grow, innovate, and compete in today’s fast-moving digital world.

For many small and medium-sized businesses, the cloud represents both an opportunity and a challenge. Limited resources, time constraints, and evolving customer demands make it critical to choose the right technology partner. That’s where we come in.

At Cloudar, we’ve built our reputation by delivering tailor-made, cost-effective, and scalable AWS solutions—with a strong focus on simplicity, security, and performance. Whether you’re a fast-growing startup or a well-established company looking to modernize, our local team of AWS-certified experts is here to guide you every step of the way.

Why This Competency Matters for You

Earning the AWS SMB Competency is more than just a badge. It confirms that Cloudar has a proven track record of helping SMBs:

• Optimize their IT infrastructure for flexibility and agility

• Reduce costs by leveraging right-sized cloud architectures

• Improve security and compliance, without the need for complex in-house solutions

• Scale operations efficiently as business needs evolve

Our customer-centric approach means we take the time to understand your business goals, not just your technical requirements. From initial strategy to hands-on implementation and ongoing support, we become a true extension of your team.

Real Results for Real Businesses

We’ve helped dozens of SMBs in the Benelux and beyond to transform their operations with AWS. From e-commerce platforms and SaaS providers to manufacturing and logistics companies, our clients trust us to deliver cloud environments that work—today and tomorrow.

Curious how we can support your journey? Take a look at some of the solutions we’ve delivered and the value they’ve created:

https://cloudar.be/services-solutions/services-for-small-and-medium-businesses/

The post Cloudar Achieves AWS SMB Competency appeared first on Cloudar.

Cloudar Renews AWS MSP Partnership with a Perfect Score!

At Cloudar, we are very proud to announce that we have successfully renewed our AWS Managed Service Provider (MSP) partnership for the second time—and with a perfect score! This achievement further solidifies our position as a leading AWS MSP, ensuring that our clients receive the highest level of cloud expertise and managed services.

A Hard-Earned Accreditation

Achieving the AWS MSP competency is no easy feat. The renewal process involves an extensive and rigorous two-day external audit, where AWS evaluates a company’s capabilities in security, automation, DevOps, customer success and more. This intensive assessment ensures that only the best-in-class providers are recognized, and we are happy to have met and exceeded every requirement.

A Six-Year Legacy of Excellence

Cloudar has been an authorized AWS MSP for six years, continuously demonstrating our ability to deliver exceptional managed services to our clients. This designation reaffirms our deep expertise in AWS technologies, proactive monitoring, and automation, helping businesses optimize their cloud environments while focusing on their core operations.

The Only Belgium-Based AWS MSP

We take great pride in being the only AWS MSP headquartered in Belgium. In a competitive and ever-evolving cloud landscape, this distinction highlights our unwavering commitment to excellence and customer satisfaction. Our local team of AWS-certified experts works tirelessly to provide best-in-class cloud solutions tailored to each client’s needs.

An Exclusive Global Network

The AWS MSP designation is highly exclusive, with only 185 companies worldwide holding this prestigious competency. As part of this elite group, Cloudar continues to set the standard for managed cloud services, ensuring businesses maximize their AWS investments.

Why Work with an AWS MSP?

Partnering with an AWS MSP like Cloudar means businesses can focus on what truly matters: delivering value and innovation. Our expert team handles the complexity of cloud management, security, and optimization, allowing organizations to drive efficiency, reduce costs, and scale with confidence.

We are incredibly proud of this accomplishment and remain dedicated to helping businesses thrive in the cloud. Thank you to our customers, partners, and the entire Cloudar team for making this achievement possible!

Looking for a trusted AWS MSP partner? Get in touch with us today and discover how Cloudar can elevate your cloud journey!

The post Cloudar renews AWS MSP partnership appeared first on Cloudar.

Cloudar has achieved the AWS Global Security & Compliance Acceleration (GSCA) certification, underscoring our commitment to providing secure, compliant cloud solutions. For AWS users, this milestone brings several benefits, helping them streamline operations, meet compliance requirements, and ensure the highest levels of security.

About the AWS Global Security & Compliance Acceleration Program

AWS designed the GSCA program to support partners in strengthening the security and compliance of cloud environments. Through the GSCA program, we have gained access to advanced training, resources, and AWS experts, enabling us to fine-tune our security capabilities and stay ahead of ever-evolving threats.

This program emphasizes automation, governance, and continuous monitoring, empowering us to proactively address security challenges and scale securely in the cloud.

Enhanced security posture

With this certification, Cloudar can provide customers with ready-to-go security solutions, customized to fit their unique requirements. From secure infrastructure setup to automated incident response, we can ensure your workloads are protected from day one.

By adhering to AWS’s best practices, we can ensure that your infrastructure is secure by design. We leverage tools like AWS Security Hub, Amazon GuardDuty and AWS Config to provide customers with continuous threat detection, rapid incident response, and real-time insights into security events. This means your business can identify and mitigate risks before they escalate.

Regulatory compliance

Compliance is no longer an afterthought. Cloudar uses AWS-native tools to continuously monitor for regulatory compliance and offers pre-built templates to help meet industry standards, reducing the time and effort required to maintain compliance.

Whether your business operates in a heavily regulated industry like healthcare, finance, or government, the GSCA certification ensures that we can help you meet key regulatory requirements such as GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2, and more.

Faster time-to-market:

By automating security and compliance processes such as patch management, configuration drift detection, and log monitoring, we can significantly reduce the time it takes to implement secure, compliant workloads on AWS.

Cloudar ensures that our customers can maintain a high security posture without the overhead of manual intervention. This leads to lower operational costs and more efficient resource allocation, so you can focus on innovation and growth, while we handle the complexities of cloud security.

Cloudar helps you leverage the power of AWS Security

Cloudar’s approach goes beyond simply implementing AWS’s built-in tools. We work closely with your teams to tailor solutions that fit your specific business needs, ensuring that you get the most out of the AWS cloud while keeping your data secure and compliant.

We design cloud architectures that follow AWS’s security best practices, but are customized to fit the scale, complexity, and compliance needs of your business.

Whether you’re migrating to the cloud or optimizing existing workloads, Cloudar ensures a smooth integration of AWS security services with your current operations.

But our support doesn’t stop after deployment: Cloudar continuously monitors your cloud environment, ensuring you stay compliant and secure as your business grows.

The Cloudar Difference

At Cloudar, we understand that security and compliance aren’t just checkboxes – they’re critical to building trust with your customers and staying ahead in a competitive market.

By achieving the Global Security & Compliance Acceleration on AWS, Cloudar once again proves that we are not just a partner, but a trusted ally in your cloud journey.

We provide peace of mind that your AWS workloads are not only running efficiently but are also secured against threats and aligned with the latest regulatory standards.

If you’d like to learn more about how Cloudar can enhance your cloud security and compliance, or if you’re ready to take your AWS workloads to the next level, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team today!

The post Achievement Unlocked: Global Security & Compliance Acceleration on AWS appeared first on Cloudar.

December 4, 2024 – Cloudar, AWS Premier Consulting Partner and Managed Services Provider, announced today that they have achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Digital Sovereignty Competency status. This specialization recognizes Cloudar as an AWS Partner that helps customers and the AWS Partner Network (APN) address customers’ digital sovereignty requirements while leveraging the power of AWS.

Achieving the AWS Digital Sovereignty Competency differentiates Cloudar as an AWS Partner that has demonstrated technical proficiency and proven customer success supporting the assured control and authority over data and infrastructure in the digital domain, including residency control, access control, resilience, survivability, and self-sufficiency. Cloudar is equipped to advise and architect for their customers’ sovereignty needs while leveraging AWS technology.

“Cloudar is incredibly proud to have earned the AWS Digital Sovereignty Competency” said Bart van Hecke, Co-Founder of Cloudar. “It reinforces our dedication to delivering secure, local cloud solutions that prioritize our clients’ data sovereignty and compliance needs.” 

Cloudar has helped customers like VDAB, the Flemish public employment service, meet their governance requirements through the implementation of a landing zone build on top of AWS Control Tower and AWS Identity Center. By leveraging these AWS solutions, VDAB can achieve compliance with EU data residency requirements and GDPR regulations, with all data securely encrypted using Customer Managed Keys. Cloudar’s solutions provide real-time compliance monitoring and automated controls, allowing VDAB to maintain operational efficiency while safeguarding sensitive public sector data.

AWS is enabling scalable, flexible, and cost-effective solutions from startups to global enterprises. To support the seamless integration and deployment of these solutions, the AWS Competency Program helps customers identify AWS Partners with deep industry experience and expertise across industries, use cases, and workloads to help grow their business.

About Cloudar

Cloudar is an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Premier Consulting Partner and Managed Services Provider with a 100% focus on AWS. They specialize in designing, building, and managing AWS infrastructure for businesses across a range of industries. With a deep commitment to innovation and security, Cloudar helps organizations fully leverage the power of the AWS cloud, providing tailor-made solutions for high availability, scalability, and cost efficiency.

As a trusted AWS partner, Cloudar offers end-to-end cloud solutions, from migration to continuous management and improvement, allowing businesses to focus on their core activities while Cloudar handles the complexity of the cloud.

Whether you’re looking to modernize your infrastructure, enhance your security posture, or accelerate your digital transformation journey, Cloudar is there to guide you every step of the way.

The post Cloudar Achieves the AWS Digital Sovereignty Competency appeared first on Cloudar.

What do you like about working for Cloudar?

Working at Cloudar has been an incredible journey for me over the past 9 years. I’m deeply inspired by the cloud computing industry, especially AWS, which has been our primary focus. The projects we undertake are challenging and rewarding, allowing me to constantly learn and grow. The open communication, lack of bureaucracy, and the freedom to innovate make Cloudar a fantastic place to work. Above all, I cherish the talented and supportive people I get to collaborate with every day.

What memory or anecdote will with stick you?

One memory that will always stick with me is our annual team weekend getaway. It’s an epic event filled with booze, BBQs, and late nights of bonding with colleagues who have become close friends. I particularly enjoy helping out at the BBQ portion every year, grilling up delicious food for everyone. The weekend is a blur of fun activities, cool games, and an excellent breakfast spread to cure any lingering headaches. It’s the perfect way to unwind and strengthen the camaraderie that makes Cloudar so special.

What’s your most important work milestone so far?

My most significant professional milestone has been achieving the DevOps Pro and Architect Pro level certifications for AWS. These certifications represent the culmination of years of continuous learning and hands-on experience building cloud solutions. I take great pride in being able to migrate customers seamlessly from on-premises infrastructure to the cloud. At Cloudar, I’ve truly become a jack-of-all-trades, constantly expanding my skills across the full cloud technology stack. Every day brings new challenges that allow me to grow as a cloud professional.

Want to join a team where you can really make a difference? Explore our job opportunities! 

The post Employee in the Spotlight: Cloud Architect & DevOps Engineer Pauwel Rummens appeared first on Cloudar.

1 day published by ENTSOE

12 days predicted by EPPM

The Need for Advanced Forecasting

In our era of energy efficiency and cost management, accurate electricity price predictions are a game-changer. For businesses, this means optimizing operations and reducing costs. For consumers, it translates to better planning and substantial savings. EPPM employs state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms and AWS services to deliver highly accurate electricity price predictions.

How EPPM Works

EPPM utilizes a comprehensive approach, integrating various data sources and sophisticated analytical techniques to generate precise forecasts. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of the process:

• Data Collection: Every day at 3 a.m., our system kicks off data collection using AWS Step Functions. We gather information from multiple sources, including weather data, historical energy prices, and other relevant factors, all stored in Amazon S3.

• Data Preprocessing: The raw data undergoes meticulous cleaning and processing using AWS Step Functions and AWS Lambda, ensuring consistency and reliability—the foundation for accurate predictions.

• Model Training: Every Monday, new models are trained using Amazon SageMaker with the latest datasets. Hyperparameters are optimized, and the most effective model is saved in Amazon S3 for future predictions.

• Prediction Generation: Leveraging the best-performing model, predictions are generated daily using Amazon ECS at 11 a.m. These forecasts offer a detailed view of hourly electricity prices for the upcoming weeks, saved into another S3 bucket.

• Data Delivery: The predicted data is delivered via a REST API running inside AWS ECS on a Fargate container. This API is consumed by a frontend application, also running as a Fargate container, ensuring scalability, reliability, and seamless integration. Users can select date ranges and view comprehensive graphs comparing predicted and actual prices through an intuitive interface.

Real-World Applications

The applications of EPPM are extensive. Businesses can optimize their energy consumption by scheduling energy-intensive operations during low-cost periods. Utility companies can better balance supply and demand, reducing the risk of outages. Regulatory bodies can use these insights to develop policies that promote sustainable energy practices.

Conclusion

Predicting electricity prices weeks in advance is set to revolutionize energy management. EPPM not only provides this capability but does so with exceptional precision and dependability, thanks to AWS native services. As EPPM evolves, it promises to make a significant impact on the energy sector, driving efficiency and sustainability.

Imagine a future where energy usage is perfectly optimized, leading to substantial savings and a greener planet. With EPPM, that future is within reach.

The post EPPM: Forecasting Energy Prices with Precision appeared first on Cloudar.

What do you like about working for Cloudar?

Since joining Cloudar in 2016, I’ve had the privilege of being part of an incredible team that feels more like a family than just colleagues. One of the standout aspects of working here is the genuine camaraderie among us. Over the years, some of my coworkers have become friends, and this has enriched my professional experience immeasurably.

The atmosphere at Cloudar strikes the perfect balance between a relaxed and flexible work environment and a no-nonsense, results-driven mentality. We’re encouraged to bring our authentic selves to work, and this authenticity is reflected in the positive and supportive atmosphere that permeates the office.

What I love most about working at Cloudar is the combination of a great team, flexibility, and a fantastic atmosphere. Whether we’re sharing a laugh or collaborating on a project, there’s always a sense of mutual respect and understanding that makes every day enjoyable. I couldn’t ask for a better place to work or a better group of people to work alongside.

What memory or anecdote will with stick you?

One of the most exhilarating and unforgettable experiences I’ve had at Cloudar was attending the World Cup Bobsleigh event in Winterberg with the team. It was a thrilling adventure that combined our shared love for sports, the great outdoors and good food and drinks.

The Winterberg trip is just one of the many memorable experiences I’ve had at Cloudar. Whether it’s the annual team weekends, intense LAN parties and karting races, or the countless inside jokes and shared moments that are better left unsaid, what happens at Cloudar truly stays at Cloudar.

These experiences are a testament to the unique culture and atmosphere that makes working at Cloudar so special. It’s not just about the work we do; it’s about the relationships we build and the unforgettable memories we create together.

What’s your most important work milestone so far?

One of the most significant milestones in my career at Cloudar has been transitioning from a technical role to a business-oriented one as a Project and Service Delivery Manager. This opportunity not only allowed me to expand my skill set but also provided a unique chance to contribute to the company’s growth and success in a new capacity.

This has been a defining moment in my career at Cloudar, reinforcing the company’s commitment to nurturing talent and providing opportunities for professional growth. I am grateful for the trust and support I’ve received and look forward to contributing further to the company’s success in the future.

Want to join a team where you can really make a difference? Explore our job opportunities! 

The post Employee in the Spotlight: Service Delivery Manager Dieter Tuerlinckx appeared first on Cloudar.

At Cloudar, we are always on the lookout for innovative ways to enhance our operations and provide top-notch services to our clients.

That’s why we’re excited to introduce our Claude Chatbot, an AI-powered chatbot running entirely on AWS infrastructure.

This powerful tool utilizes Aurora VectorDB, AWS Bedrock, and Claude Opus/Sonnet/Haiku to offer a customizable, efficient, and secure solution for all your chatbot needs.

Customizing Your Chatbot

One of the standout features of Claude Chatbot is its customizability. You can tailor the chatbot to meet your specific needs by uploading your own knowledge base. This makes the chatbot not only a general assistant but also an expert in your chosen domain.

• Upload Documentation: Prepare the documentation or information you want the chatbot to know. This could be anything from company policies to technical manuals.
• Train the Chatbot: Upload this documentation to the chatbot. The AI will process this information and integrate it into its knowledge base, making it a permanent part of its understanding.
• Create Custom Bots: You can create multiple bots for different purposes. For instance, at Cloudar, we have a bot specifically for internal use that contains detailed information about our company.
• Expose as API: Any custom chatbot with custom knowledge can be exposed as an API, allowing other applications to interact with it seamlessly.

Claude can support a wide range of knowledge sources, including but not limited to URLs, PDFs, Office files, text files, and even YouTube videos (links)!

Generative AI: The Core of Claude Chatbot

Claude Chatbot leverages the power of Generative AI to provide advanced capabilities that go beyond simple query responses. By using generative models, Claude can:

• Generate Detailed Responses: Craft detailed, contextually relevant responses based on the input it receives.
• Understand Nuanced Queries: Handle complex and nuanced questions with ease, providing accurate and helpful answers.
• Adapt and Learn: Continuously improve its performance based on interactions and newly uploaded knowledge.

Benefits of Using Claude Chatbot

By leveraging Claude Chatbot, you gain several advantages:

• Enhanced AI Capabilities: The Claude models (Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku) provide state-of-the-art natural language understanding and generation.
• Generative AI Power: With Generative AI at its core, Claude Chatbot can create meaningful and contextually appropriate responses, enhancing user experience.
• Data Ownership: All your data is stored within your AWS account, ensuring you retain complete control over your information.
• Easy Customization: Tailor the chatbot to your needs by uploading specific documentation, making it a valuable tool for both internal and external use.
• API Integration: Expose your custom chatbot as an API, enabling seamless interaction with other applications.
• Scalability: Running on AWS infrastructure means the chatbot can scale effortlessly with your needs, whether you’re a small startup or a large enterprise.
• Seamless Billing: All usage and charges are billed through your AWS bill. No new contracts required.

Setting Up Claude Chatbot

Deploying the Claude Chatbot is a breeze, thanks to its seamless integration with AWS. Here’s how we do it:

1. Provisioning Your AWS Account: We take care of setting up your AWS account, ensuring all necessary services are ready to go.
2. One-Click Deployment: With just one click, we deploy the full infrastructure to your AWS account, thanks to the AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK). This includes, but is not limited to:

• Aurora VectorDB for optimized data handling
• AWS Bedrock to support AI applications
• API Gateway (APIGW) for managing API requests
• Lambda Functions for serverless compute
• S3 Buckets for scalable storage
• DynamoDB for fast and flexible NoSQL database services
• And more necessary AWS services to ensure a robust and scalable deployment

3. Aftercare and Support: Our commitment doesn’t end at deployment. We provide comprehensive aftercare and support to ensure your Claude Chatbot runs smoothly and efficiently.

Case Study: Cloudar’s Custom Chatbot

At Cloudar, we have multiple custom bots at our disposal:

• Internal Knowledge Bot: This bot is equipped with detailed information about Cloudar, assisting us in everything related to our company.
• AWS Services Bot: This bot contains comprehensive knowledge about some of the major AWS services, helping our team stay informed and up-to-date.

These custom bots have significantly improved our efficiency and reduced the time spent searching for information.

Conclusion

Claude Chatbot represents a significant step forward in AI-driven customer service and internal assistance. Its integration with AWS infrastructure makes it a robust, scalable, and secure solution. By leveraging Claude’s Generative AI capabilities and customizing the chatbot with your own knowledge base, you can transform the way you interact with your clients and team members.

Ready to get started? Let us handle the setup and deployment, and experience the future of AI-powered assistance with Claude Chatbot on your AWS account today.

The post Start Leveraging the Power of Generative AI with Our Claude Chatbot on AWS appeared first on Cloudar.

At Cloudar, we’ve always believed that security should be at the heart of every cloud strategy. Our commitment to delivering top-notch cloud security solutions has led us to achieve numerous milestones, and today, we’re excited to announce our latest achievement: Cloudar has earned the prestigious AWS Security Competency!

Building on our ISO/IEC 27001 certification since 2018 and our existing AWS competencies, this accomplishment marks a significant milestone in our journey to provide the highest level of security and service to our customers. In this blog post, we’ll dive into what the AWS Security Competency means for us and, more importantly, what benefits it brings to our valued customers.

What is AWS Security Competency?

The AWS Security Competency is not just a fancy title; it’s a recognition of excellence in designing, implementing, and managing security solutions on the Amazon Web Services platform. AWS awards this competency to organizations that demonstrate exceptional proficiency in securing AWS workloads and infrastructure.

Why it matters

Expertise You Can Trust

Achieving the AWS Security Competency is a rigorous process that involves a deep evaluation of an organization’s expertise in various security domains such as identity and access management, data protection, compliance, and more.
This achievement is a seal of approval from Amazon Web Services itself.
It means that Cloudar’s team of experts possesses a comprehensive understanding of AWS security best practices, threat detection, and incident response. It signifies that we have demonstrated proficiency and skill in protecting your cloud infrastructure and data, giving you peace of mind that your assets are in capable hands.

Cutting-Edge Solutions

Our team at Cloudar stays at the forefront of security technology. Achieving the AWS Security Competency ensures that we are equipped with the latest knowledge and tools to keep your AWS environments secure from evolving threats.
Our partnership with Trend Micro played a crucial role in this accomplishment. Trend Micro is a global leader in cloud security, and our collaboration has allowed us to leverage their cutting-edge technology and expertise to enhance our security solutions. Together, we’ve created a formidable team dedicated to safeguarding our customers’ cloud environments.

Dedication to Continuous Improvement

Security is not a static field; it’s an ever-evolving landscape. To maintain this competency, Cloudar continues to invest in training and staying up-to-date with the latest security trends and technologies. We are committed to providing our customers with the most advanced security solutions available.

Proven Track Record

Our attainment of this competency underscores our extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing secure AWS solutions.
We understand that one-size-fits-all security solutions rarely work. Cloudar’s expertise allows us to tailor security measures to your unique needs, ensuring that your AWS environment is both secure and efficient. We’ve successfully tackled complex security challenges for customers across various industries, consistently delivering exceptional results.

Benefits for our customers

Compliance Assurance

As an ISO/IEC 27001 certified company, Cloudar understands the importance of compliance.
With Cloudar’s AWS Security Competency, you can trust us to help you meet and exceed regulatory compliance requirements. Our deep understanding of AWS services ensures that your cloud infrastructure aligns with industry-specific standards, making audits and certifications a breeze.

Enhanced Security Posture

With our AWS Security Competency and other AWS competencies, you gain access to top-tier security practices and expertise.
We go above and beyond to ensure your AWS environments are fortified against potential threats and vulnerabilities, significantly reducing the risk of data breaches and disruptions.

Cost Savings

Investing in security is an investment in your business’s longevity. By preventing costly breaches and downtime, Cloudar’s expertise can save you substantial financial resources in the long run.

Increased Efficiency

Our tailored security solutions are designed to integrate seamlessly with your existing AWS environment. This ensures that security measures do not impede your operations, allowing for increased efficiency and productivity.

Peace of Mind

In the event of a security incident, Cloudar’s well-practiced incident response teams are ready to spring into action. Our proactive security measures help mitigate threats before they become major issues, minimizing downtime and data loss.
With Cloudar as your trusted AWS Security Competency partner, you can focus on growing your business, knowing that your cloud infrastructure is fortified against threats. Sleep better at night, knowing that experts are on guard.

Conclusion

Achieving the AWS Security Competency is not just an accolade for Cloudar; it’s a testament to our unwavering dedication to providing the highest level of security for our customers’ AWS environments.

We are committed to keeping your data safe, your operations efficient, and your business thriving. Your cloud’s security is our priority, and together, we’ll reach new horizons.

To learn more about how Cloudar can secure your AWS environment and help your business grow securely, contact us today and experience the difference of working with an AWS Security Competency holder!

The post Elevating cloud security to new heights: Cloudar earns AWS Security Competency! appeared first on Cloudar.

Future-proofing the cloud

Sustainability fits in perfectly with the other five pillars of AWS: Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, and Cost Optimization. But it goes further, uniting a wide range of measures and embodying a truly green economy.

The pillar of sustainability aims to increase growth in employment and income driven by public and private investment into sustainable economic activities, infrastructure and assets: those that reduce carbon emissions and pollutions, enhance energy and resource efficiency, and prevent the loss of biodiversity. For example, when companies reduce the impact on customer devices they ensure that the devices themselves are less prone to replacement. This not only reduces e-waste but makes sense economically as well.

It is absolutely essential that companies get extremely serious about measuring and reducing their impact on the climate. The main question that companies should be asking themselves is: “How can we reduce our company’s cloud carbon footprint?”. Defining and achieving sustainability targets is absolutely urgent and essential.

The sustainability pillar focuses on energy consumption and efficiency, since these are essential in building sustainable infrastructures. The starting point is the shared responsibility model, which regards environmental sustainability as a shared responsibility between customers and AWS:

• AWS is responsible for optimizing the sustainability of the cloud – delivering efficient, shared infrastructure, water stewardship, and sourcing renewable power.
• Customers are responsible for sustainability in the cloud – optimizing workloads and resource utilization, and minimizing the total resources deployed for their workloads.

Amazon takes the lead

To attain the nearly impossible goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050, everyone must do their part. Fortunately Amazon is taking its responsibility as one of the world’s most influential companies, embracing the enormous role they have to play in inspiring other companies to reduce their climate impact.

Amazon co-founded The Climate Pledge with Global Optimism in 2019 with the goal of creating collective, cross-sector action on the climate crisis. Their conviction is that global businesses are responsible, accountable, and able to act on the climate crisis. The aim is to be fully sustainable by 2025 with a global capacity of 12GW.

We can only meaningfully reduce our impact if we have a metric with which to quantify our environmental impact in the cloud. An exciting sign of Amazon’s commitment to this goal is the announcement of the AWS Customer Carbon Footprint Tool. This tool allows companies to track their usage as well as project their carbon footprint into the future, accounting for AWS’s growing use of renewable energy.

Another door to sustainability lies in specialized hardware: AWS developed Trainium and Inferentia machine learning (ML) chips that are highly optimized for their specific tasks, and that includes their power efficiency. For general computing, Graviton brings similar advantages not just in price, but also concerning resource efficiency. We also shouldn’t underestimate the value of Lambdas not just in building and running code, but also to make the best use of resources like electricity.

Inspiring companies to be more energy-efficient

Studies have shown that AWS’s infrastructure is significantly more energy-efficient than the average global enterprise datacenter. This is because they combine a more energy-efficient server population and much higher server utilization. AWS also works closely with their customers to accelerate mutually shared sustainability goals. With AWS, companies can implement digital innovation, including data migration and application modernization to cloud-native technologies, and to collaborate on artificial intelligence and machine learning use cases.

AWS also seeks out companies to accelerate the realization of their Climate Pledge goal by providing them with reliable, flexible solar and wind energy to power AWS’s operations with 100% renewable energy. In 2021, AWS joined the datacenter industry in Europe to create the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact, an industry commitment to proactively lead the transition to a climate-neutral economy.

This commitment led to a self-regulatory initiative developed in cooperation with the European Commission within the framework of the European Green Deal. AWS has committed itself to meeting ambitious goals to facilitate Europe’s essential transition to a greener economy by agreeing to prove energy efficiency with measurable targets, purchase 100% renewable energy, prioritize water conservation, reuse and repair servers, and look for ways to recycle heat.

Lowering the cloud footprint

Cloud providers have a lower carbon footprint and are more energy-efficient than typical on-premises alternatives. This is because they invest in efficient power and cooling technology, operate energy-efficient server populations, and achieve high server utilization rates. Cloud workloads reduce impact by taking advantage of shared resources such as networking, power, cooling, and physical facilities. It is now possible for companies to migrate their cloud workloads to more efficient technologies as they become available and to use cloud-based services to transform their workloads for better sustainability.

AWS’ sustainability pillar explicitates certain design principles when architecting cloud workloads to maximize sustainability and minimize impact such as: Understand your impact, Establish sustainability goals, Maximize utilization, Anticipate and adopt new, more efficient hardware and software offerings, Use managed services, and Reduce the downstream impact of cloud workloads.

AWS also sets forth some best practices for sustainability in the cloud such optimising workload placement as well as the architecture for user, software, data, hardware, and development and deployment patterns to increase energy efficiency. They create opportunities to employ best practices to reduce the environmental impact of a companies’ cloud workload by maximizing utilization and minimizing waste and total resources.

Conclusion: the future looks green

Ethical considerations, regulatory changes, competitive advantages as well as customer, employee, and investor demands are driving organizations to set sustainability targets. CTOs, architects, developers, and operations team members are being urged to seek ways to directly contribute to their organization’s sustainability goals. Using the design principles and best practices supported by AWS services, they can make informed decisions balancing security, cost, performance, reliability, and operational excellence with sustainability outcomes for their AWS Cloud workloads.

Every action we take to reduce resource usage and increase efficiency across our workloads contributes to a reduction in environmental impact and contributes to an organizations’ broader sustainability goals. AWS’ sustainability pillar seeks to minimize the environmental impacts of running cloud workloads based on a shared responsibility model. Though there is still a long way to go, we are beginning to see an increasing sense of responsibility and optimism that will hopefully help us combat climate change and transition to a greener economy and a brighter future.

The post The sixth pillar: how AWS is stepping up on climate change appeared first on Cloudar.