We all share a lot of data. There’s everything shared for professional purposes, of course, but there’s also all the casual things that we send back and forth—chats, requests to have people to pick up things on the way home, and (naturally) memes and pet pictures.

Most of this is sent off without a thought. However, let’s take a moment to think about it for a moment… is there an impact to all this data being sent around?

As it turns out, there is.

Remember: Everything You Send is Stored Somewhere

When you send someone any kind of message, it isn’t as though the message and its data exit your device and move directly to the recipient’s device. Instead, all that data is ultimately stored in the cloud... or, in other words, some data center someplace.

Every message we send lives in these data centers, stored in the hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of hard drives that these cloud platforms are built on. Each hard drive requires energy to function, with varying amounts based on the infrastructure used. The more data that is stored, the more energy is expended.

So, let’s sum up the situation:

• More and more data is being generated and shared.
• For this data to be shared, it is stored in data centers.
• These data centers use up energy to maintain this information.

See where this is going?

The More Data Stored, the More Energy Used

It’s pretty simple. As we produce and store more data, more energy is needed to sustain it, which means more energy needs to be produced. This ultimately draws more from our environment, leading to a negative overall impact. 

So, when you consider that 68% of data that companies use (and presumably, similar amounts of personal data) is never used again, that is a lot of unnecessary energy used up… not to mention, eating up valuable storage space (which you likely pay for) and incurring opportunity and risk-related costs, missing out on potential business or adding extra data to be stolen in a breach.

How to Minimize Dark Data

Simply put: think twice before hitting send.

Whether it’s an email that could be a quick call or a message that doesn’t really contribute to the conversation, the more you send, the more data that is generated. Being a little more discerning with your messaging habits might help make a little difference.

Just so we’re clear, we are in no way suggesting that a few employees sending a few less memes will even nudge the needle. However, actions like these can help inspire greater efforts toward environmentally-friendly efforts on the organizational level, before potentially becoming the industry standard over time. Is it a lofty goal? Yes… but a worthwhile one.

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