Delegating data management to the cloud: A case study in a telecommunication company

A main incentive in favor of migrating to the cloud is delegating the management of large volumes of data to cloud providers. To make the notion of data cloud successful, providers must ensure availability, reliability, and data integrity among other qualities. Few researches so far have addressed the potential benefits data cloud provisioning can offer for energy efficiency. In this case study carried out in a multi-national telecommunication organization, we investigate under which circumstances delegating data management to the cloud can add value to cloud customers, in terms of both energy consumption (hence efficiency) and cost when archiving data in the cloud. Results show that data cloud migration is beneficial only if consumers yield certain characteristics in terms of type of data, retention period, and frequency of usage. We design a framework called “Value of Energy framework”, that estimates wastes in the way a company manages data, and hence identify what data can and should be migrated to a cloud provider.