Let’s celebrate Earth Day 2024 together, in the clouds!

While we should assess our impact on our planet every day, Earth Day is the ideal time to do some self-reflection on our efforts of the past and ways we can protect our beautiful planet in the future. As the famous Native American proverb states “we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”  With our hearts and minds centered in education and our eyes on the future, Anthology is working together with you – our valued clients, partners, faculty, staff, and students – to build a better future for education, our planet, and our children.

Cloud computing or making the move to SaaS solutions might not be the first thing that comes to mind on Earth Day. And fair enough, too — when average animal populations have declined by 69% since 1970, worldwide forest cover shrinks by 4.7 million hectares each year, and at least 75 million tons of plastic continue to clog our oceans, anyone who thinks software is the natural place to start surely has their head, to put it mildly, in the clouds.

But let me invite you to think of this another way. The latest research indicates that data centers account for 3% of all global electricity usage—on par with Elon Musk's private jet and the rest of the aviation industry—a figure that could easily grow as our economies and lives become more dependent on digital technologies. If you believe, as we at Anthology absolutely do, that both the technology and education sectors have a key role to play in caring for our planet and its inhabitants, then a discussion on software and storage might not, in fact, be such a crazy leaping off point.

We are proud to partner with Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services to deliver our SaaS solutions, both of which have clear sustainability charters for their data centers. Research indicates that working with these leading providers can be as much as 93% more energy efficient than a data center based on site, and we continue to work closely with institutions to advance these efficiencies in the education industry. To name just a single example, our flagship Student Information System (SIS), Anthology Student, was the first in its category to adopt a true SaaS, cloud-hosted architecture, meaning that when institutions make the move to Student—as the great teams at the University of Advancing Technology have done recently—there’s an environmental benefit to complement those for students and administrators.

The University of Advancing Technology recently made the move from the Anthology Student’s legacy on-premises client to our more robust cloud-based client. By making the move from on-premises to cloud solutions, Anthology and the University of Advancing Technology are working to leverage cloud computing to improve the experiences of their users, delivering easy access to innovation, and leveraging more eco-friendly infrastructure. “By helping our clients, like the University of Advancing Technology, make the move to a more SaaS-centric deployment model for their Student Information Systems (SIS) they will give their students and staff faster, easier access to new features, a more modern user experience, and better position themselves for the ever-changing landscape of higher education.” – Raymond Todd Blackwood, vice president of product management, Anthology Student.  

Looking towards the future, the power of generative AI becomes an interesting consideration as we assess sustainability. The rapid increase in demand for AI-powered capabilities could increase demand for compute and electricity. However, the potential to accelerate technological advancements such as streamlining development efforts, accelerating testing processes and even broadening the efficiencies of leveraging AI could potentially become an acting force in driving efficiency. This is why we value our relationships with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft and their commitments to sustainability, by leveraging their platforms to host our vast ecosystem of Anthology solutions we can harness their sustainability efforts alongside our own.

Again, it’s important not to miss the forest for the trees here. Earth Day reminds us of the magnitude of the challenge that faces our planet, which goes well beyond the scope of any of us as individuals or the organizations that employ us. It is, however, crucial that the tech sector, as a driver of the modern world, sets an example with sustainable practices, and we welcome all your feedback via the Anthology Idea Exchange to ensure that we remain a leader in this space.


Carisa Stringer
Vice President of Product Marketing
Anthology

 

Join us at Anthology Together ’24 Where education + technology meet July 15–17 | Orlando, Florida