Written by: Lynn Cadet
Edited by: Lillian Castro
TL; DR: Platform.sh recently announced a 3% Greener Region Discount for users who choose a green data center location on Upsun, its new PaaS solution. This incentive will allow companies to save money as they reduce their carbon footprint. Its Upsun platform is currently in Open Beta and will be released in April 2024, but Open Beta users can use the discount as of today. Platform.sh also launched a green data center location via Google Cloud in Zurich, Switzerland, at the start of February 2024.
The global cloud computing market was valued at $587.78 billion in 2023 and is expected to increase to $676 billion in 2024. It will continue to grow over the next decade and surpass the trillion mark by 2028. It’s not surprising the cloud’s rise has been so monumental, especially since everyone can’t wait to get their hands on its resources.
The cloud’s benefits have made it a treasure trove for companies. Its scalability and flexibility have revolutionized how we create and power applications, websites, and other projects. Its impact on digital transformation can’t be disputed.
But with increased demand comes increased supply. The primary way to fulfill that supply is by developing more data centers and computing hardware. Unfortunately, data centers have a negative M.O. in the environmental sector. Data centers currently consume about 3% of the world’s total energy supply.
Cooling and refrigeration account for most of the carbon emissions from these data centers. But all is not lost. Thankfully, there are tons of greener data centers out there that are using renewable energy sources to reduce their carbon footprint. And Platform.sh is leading the advocacy for this environmental change.
Platform.sh is no stranger to green initiatives. It has overseen and executed several green initiatives within its platform and the community, from optimizing server density to participating in climate summits. Its latest project will help steer cloud customers to greener data center usage by incentivizing them with a sales discount for its new platform, Upsun.
The First in the Cloud Industry in Green Initiatives
Pioneering the field may be in Platform.sh’s blood. In 2022, it made noise in the environmental change sector and hired Leah Goldfarb as its Environmental Impact Officer, the first position of its kind in the PaaS industry. It’s clear that the Platform.sh team is always on the lookout to raise awareness for climate change. And Platform.sh has done it again.
On February 28, 2024, Platform.sh announced a 3% Greener Region Discount for customers who choose a greener data center on Upsun, a new PaaS from Platform.sh that will launch in April 2024. This incentive is a first in the cloud industry. It will help encourage users to make more eco-friendly application deployments and offset carbon emissions on a larger scale.
“With the Greener Region Discount, we aim to contribute to making a real impact by bearing the cost of this incentive, thereby empowering our users to reduce their carbon footprint in the cloud while staying cost-efficient,” said Fred Plais, Co-Founder and CEO of Platform.sh.
Eligible data centers can only consume less than 100 gCO₂eq/kWh of electricity. With this criterion in mind, Platform.sh offers six incentive-eligible data center regions in five countries, including France, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, and the US, and across four cloud providers, Azure, AWS, GCP, and OVH.
Carbon intensity is another factor Platform.sh takes into account. Since intensity can vary according to physical location and energy sources, Platform.sh will update the carbon intensities for its regions using Electricity Maps data. This way, it can ensure users get the most accurate information to make the greenest choices without performance impact.
“As the grid carbon intensity fluctuates…we will base our data on an annual 12-month average per year provided by Electricity Maps. This gives us a more accurate estimation of our clients’ usage and aligns with how our carbon audit is calculated,” said Goldfarb.
Dedicated to Supporting Developers and Organizations
Platform.sh is dedicated to supporting developers and organizations along their development and carbon footprint journey. Its all-in-one Platform-as-a-Service solution allows users to streamline the building and deployment process while handling infrastructure complexities.
Platform.sh supports more than 70 open-source languages and frameworks, including Node.js, WordPress, and Python. It gives developers the scalability, observability, and security to create applications with the best results. And its platform is carbon-conscious. Its high-density computing allows up to 12 times fewer resources to be used throughout the development life cycle.
Upsun, Platform.sh’s latest project, will join Platform.sh in promoting a better developer experience and eco-friendly hosting.
“With Upsun, we are offering our most efficient cloud orchestration, providing better alignment between cost optimization and carbon footprint. [The Greener Region Discount] cements our commitment to decrease the effects of our activity on the environment, one step at a time,” said Fred.
Upsun is currently in Open Beta and will officially launch in April 2024. It will provide users with a fully managed and self-service PaaS solution powered by Platform.sh. Upsun is a highly flexible platform that allows users to preview environments, have agnostic freedom, and collaborate on almost everything.
Speaking of flexibility, the Greener Region Discount also allows users to choose from up to six data center regions with less carbon generation. Although Upsun is in Open Beta, Platform.sh has already made the Greener Region Discount available to all Open Beta users.
Opening a Green Hosting Region in Switzerland
Platform.sh seeks to align with the customer’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) interests. It recently added another solution to its platform to help users meet those ESG goals. Platform.sh now offers a greener data center location in Zurich, Switzerland.
A known climate change leader, Switzerland primarily uses low-carbon and renewable energy sources. Its advocacy for sustainability makes it an attractive data center location for businesses looking to reduce their carbon footprint. Platform.sh has made this new data region available via Google Cloud.
Platform.sh launched a data region in Switzerland partly in response to the demand from Swiss businesses for data localization. It also helped international companies with needs in Switzerland to readily comply with a complex web of regional data privacy and security laws.
“Platform.sh enables this choice by offering services out of a growing number of datacenter regions, allowing businesses to comply with data sovereignty laws while efficiently serving their customers’ needs. Expanding our multicloud reach into Zurich means our customers can deploy globally and comply locally,” said Mathieu Strauch, Senior Enterprise Account Executive of Platform.sh.
