Cloud Services vs. On-Premise: Early Data on Carbon Efficiency

Cloudflare commissioned a study from Analysys Mason to compare the carbon efficiency of network functions—firewalls, WAF, SD-WAN, DDoS protection, content servers—delivered through its cloud platform versus traditional on-premise appliances. While the full report is slated for 2023, initial findings point to significant environmental advantages for the cloud-based approach.

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall (WAF) "generates up to around 90% less carbon than on-premises appliances at low-medium traffic demand."

The Internet's carbon footprint is substantial. Per the United Nations, energy generation accounts for roughly 35% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The Boston Consulting Group attributes about 2% of all carbon output—1 billion metric tons annually—to the Internet's infrastructure of servers, routers, and data centers.

Beyond Hardware Efficiency

Reducing these emissions requires a two-pronged approach: transitioning to zero-emissions energy sources and improving energy efficiency. However, applying these concepts across the Internet's geographically distributed architecture is complex. Much of the existing focus has been on individual hardware components, like Cloudflare's deployment of Arm CPUs, and the PUE of hyperscale data centers. This study aims to examine efficiency gains across all layers of the network stack and the Internet's fundamental architecture.

Methodology and Scope

Analysys Mason is modeling a range of enterprise network functions—firewalls, WAF, SD-WAN, DDoS protection, content servers—across various scenarios. These include different usage patterns, organization sizes, and operating conditions. Power and capacity data for on-premise appliances come from vendor data sheets. Cloudflare's energy consumption figures derive from internal datasets tracking server power usage, CPU resource allocation, and traffic distribution among products.

Next Steps

Analysys Mason expects to release the complete report in early 2023. Cloudflare cautions that the preliminary WAF results may shift as the methodology is refined and assumptions are tested. The initial data, however, suggests that moving these network functions to the cloud could offer measurable carbon reductions.