r/AskTechnology • u/AcadiaLow9013 • 15h ago

Are cloud computing and data centers sustainable?

When I say sustainable, I don’t mean it as a buzzword. I mean whether the physical infrastructure can keep scaling to meet demand. To support ever growing cloud consumption and digitalization of stuff, especially with the rise of AI workloads.

Cloud providers have to keep building data centers and expanding capacity. Is there a point where we hit a hard limit, where we can’t add more compute, storage, or capacity because of constraints like power, land, cooling, or chip supply? You need water, electricity, GPUs, memory, copper, silicon, etc. And land too, although data centers I think are quite dense so unlike what most people think, I think it's not the biggest concern here.

As I said, obviously there's a limit, but my point is, will we ever hit it? What is the tendency growing to? And what are the biggest challenges?

And I know there's a huge ideological fatigue with climate discourse and whatnot, but this really seems concerning to me. I'm no expert on the matter, so maybe you guys can clear things up for me.

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u/ThreePartHarmoneigh 15h ago

Yes, they are scalable. They are just a bullding with lots of computers inside. 

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u/bigpix 13h ago

An interesting point I recently came across stated that all of these centers will need to be upgraded every few years due to ever improving technology. Makes sense to me but what do I know?

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u/agowa338 11h ago

Hell no. It's not even cost covering yet...

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u/hawaiianmoustache 11h ago

We hit unsustainably months and months ago friend.

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u/skittlebog 9h ago

My suspicion is that they are overbuilding at the moment. Everyone is competing to be the dominant player in the field and overspending.

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u/rz2000 5h ago

Equipment that is $10k right now (premium Mac Studio, or a pair of DGX Sparks) is expensive, but can do incredible work for you with only 200W of input power. Adjusted for inflation, that’s much cheaper than early personal computers, and in 2026 you can get uninterruptible 200W even if you’re on a boat in the middle of the ocean with a few solar panels and a battery. That’s seems pretty close to the definition of sustainable to me.