Towards Zero-Carbon Data Movement at the HPC and Cloud Data Centers.

The proliferation of scientific applications, the Internet of Things (IoT), social media, and e-commerce has led to an exponential growth in data generation, consequently fueling the demand for large-scale data analytics systems. Consequently, the transfer of data over the Internet has escalated to an unprecedented scale, surpassing the zettabyte mark [37]. As data generation rates continue to surge, the carbon footprint associated with data movement has emerged as a pressing concern, particularly for High-Performance Computing (HPC) and Cloud data centers. Projections indicate that by 2030, information and communication technologies will account for 8%–21% of global electricity usage [6]. HPC and Cloud data centers and communication networks contribute to 69% of the overall power consumption within the IT sector [4]. Within this segment, data transfers alone consume over a hundred terawatt-hours of energy annually, amounting to a staggering $20 billion USD [6]. The environmental implications are equally monumental, with information and communication technologies projected to be responsible for a staggering 14% of carbon emissions by 2040 [6]. These trends have spurred significant efforts to reduce energy consumption in hardware and software systems, as well as networking devices.