Energy Efficiency Dilemma: P2P-cloud vs. Datacenter

Energy consumption is increasing in the IT sector and a remarkable part of this energy is consumed in data centers. Numerous techniques have been proposed to solve the energy efficiency issue in cloud systems. Recently, there are some efforts to decentralize the cloud via distributing data centers in diverse geographical positions. In this paper, we elaborate on the energy consumption of different cloud architectures, from a mega-datacenter to a P2P-cloud that provides extreme decentralization in terms of datacenter size. P2P-cloud is defined as a set of commodity host machines, connected to each other to serve a community. Our evaluation results reveal the fact that the more decentralized the system is, the less energy may be consumed in the system. Studying the energy efficiency of P2P-cloud infrastructure shows that the additional system design complexity involved is warranted with improved energy-efficiency and better locality for some services. Our analysis indicates that such P2P-cloud outperforms the classic datacenter model as long as it meets the locality conditions, which are commonplace in communities. Moreover, we illustrate how much energy can be saved for MapReduce applications with a diverse range of specifications by switching to P2P-cloud.