Comparative Analysis of Energy Efficiency in Virtualization Tools and Underlying Operating Systems

According to current research into trends in information technology and its impact on the global economy, it has been realized that the upward rise and adoption of digital technologies continue to contribute to the use of cloud computing technologies, with more concern placed on the energy consumed by these cloud infrastructures. In this paper, as much as the global concern is the energy consumption of different worldwide systems, the focus is directed to the energy consumption of cloud computing infrastructures. Hence, we look into the energy consumption levels of several chosen virtualization technologies and their underlying operating systems in the context of cloud computing, with a close look into their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This work examines how cloud computing components affect energy usage in the global ICT ecosystem. The methodology used in the work was divided into two categories: The macro methodology that emphasized life-cycle analysis, and the micro methodology which used both experimental setup and inferential statistics to confirm details of the result. The findings of the study showed that the Microsoft Hyper-V consumed the least energy, and it is expected that this finding will improve cloud computing practitioners’ and policymakers’ understanding of virtualization tools’ energy consumption patterns alongside GHG emissions, helping them make sustainable environmental decisions.