Making our applications greener

A talk I gave at Devopsdays Oslo.

We live - and work - in an environmentally unbalanced system. In this talk, I’m hoping to make the audience more aware of the impact IT has on the environment, and leave them with tools that help positively lower this impact.

Did you know that the IT sector is estimated to consume approximately 3.6% - 7% of global electricity, and according to Cisco’s Network Traffic Forecast, we’re anticipating a significant increase in global Internet traffic in the next two years? And that the estimated global energy consumption for data centers and enterprise networks alone was equivalent to about 245 TWh in 2016? That’s more electricity than Spain, Australia or Iran use in a year.

We’ll go through more data on the environmental impact of our IT sector. We’ll use The Green Web Foundation’s “Platforms, Packets, Process” mental model to try to put that data into perspective. Finally, we’ll look at what we can do in our everyday work to make our services environmentally sustainable.

Let’s contribute together towards bringing the balance back.

Transcript

1. Confidential Customized for Lorem Ipsum LLC Version 1.0 Making our applications greener Marta Paciorkowska, infrastructure developer @FINN @a_meba
2. Confidential Customized for Lorem Ipsum LLC Version 1.0 Our plan today Personal story Global crisis Our users Mental model Platform Packets Process Where to start @a_meba
3. Personal story I haven’t always worked in tech. Came from environmental activism and struggled to feel relevant. Western tech needs more outsiders. ☺ @a_meba
4. Global crisis @a_meba
5. Our hands aren’t clean Global electricity consumption = 21,000 TWh 1 in 2016. Est. global energy consumption for data centers & enterprise networks alone was 245 TWh in 2016. 1 ICT networks (phones + computers) add another 220 TWh. 1 @a_meba Norway Iran IT sector USA China 100 200 300 6400 TWh 400 6300 … 4000 3900 3800 … 3700
6. Let’s simplify it a bit (Conservative) assumptions: • The IT sector produces well over 110 Mt CO 2 equivalent every year.1 • We can spend 20 years on offsetting a year’s emissions. • A tree can absorb ½ ton of CO 2 in that time.2 • we fit 100,000 trees in a km2. @a_meba
7. @a_meba = Tokyo (~2,200 km2)
8. @a_meba = 1,000,000 trees = Tokyo (~2,200 km2)
9. @a_meba = 1,000,000 trees = Tokyo (~2,200 km2) x 20 years
10. @a_meba = 1,000,000 trees = Tokyo (~2,200 km2) x 20 years = 1 year’s offset
11. @a_meba
12. Our users @a_meba
13. They care They want to make better choices and they want us to do better 01 | Organic food market in Poland grew 4x in under 10 yrs 1 02 | 73% of millennials would pay more for sustainability 2 03 | ⅓ of consumers prefer sustainable brands 3 04 | 69% of consumers want transparency 4 05 | 52% of Norwegians shop for sustainability 5 @a_meba
14. We can be in the way Do brands make it easier or harder for you to be environmentally friendly and ethical in your daily life? Easier 28% Harder 43% Don’t know 29% @a_meba Survey of 1004 respondents in the USA and UK, November 2018 for Futerra by OnePulse 1
15. High expectations @a_meba Yes 88% No 12% Would you like brands to help you be more environmentally friendly and ethical in your daily life? Survey of 1004 respondents in the USA and UK, November 2018 for Futerra by OnePulse 1
16. Return of investment? A habitable planet. @a_meba @a_meba
17. Build your mental model @a_meba
18. Platform, Packets, Process A model introduced by The Green Web Foundation 1 that helps reason about the environmental impact of your infrastructure. There are also other models you can use to reason about other areas of how your company operates. @a_meba
19. Platform Environmental costs of servers and infrastructure used to run your application. @a_meba
20. Where you run @a_meba
21. Finn’s story Evaluated different cloud providers. Made an internal sustainability report. Initiative came from the developers. Choose a cloud provider because it fit our use case and was more sustainable. @a_meba
22. Not all cloud providers are the same @a_meba • Some create efficient data centers with a PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) way over the industry average.1 • Some either use renewable energy or match actual energy demand with carbon-free supply. • Some implement a circular economy and reuse server components. @a_meba
23. Not all cloud providers are the same • Some create efficient data centers with a PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) way over the industry average.1 • Some either use renewable energy or match actual energy demand with carbon-free supply. • Some implement a circular economy and reuse server components. @a_meba • Others allegedly drop sustainable goals to pursue business with the oil and gas industry. @a_meba
24. Carbon neutral data centers exist Pictured: A carbon-neutral data center in Norway. 1 @a_meba
25. Can your platform be greener? Some tips to make it happen @a_meba
26. Can your platform be greener? • Choose those cloud regions for your infrastructure which are powered by renewables. 1 Some tips to make it happen @a_meba
27. Can your platform be greener? • Choose those cloud regions for your infrastructure which are powered by renewables. 1 • Switch to a sustainable cloud provider or data center. Some tips to make it happen @a_meba
28. Can your platform be greener? • Choose those cloud regions for your infrastructure which are powered by renewables. 1 • Switch to a sustainable cloud provider or data center. • Avoid over-provisioning servers. Some tips to make it happen @a_meba
29. Can your platform be greener? • Choose those cloud regions for your infrastructure which are powered by renewables. 1 • Switch to a sustainable cloud provider or data center. • Avoid over-provisioning servers. • Periodically audit infrastructure to remove unused VMs and services. Some tips to make it happen @a_meba
30. How you run it @a_meba
31. We still build infrastructure of tomorrow on concepts from yesterday. @a_meba
32. @a_meba
33. @a_meba CPU utilization
34. @a_meba CPU utilization 35%
35. A waste of capacity @a_meba We’re literally burning coal when our machines are idling.
36. Servers in US data centers 10%-30% Zombie servers: obsolete/unused machines that consume electricity but aren’t used 1 @a_meba
37. Different ways to scale better 1 @a_meba
38. How efficient is your application? Some open questions @a_meba
39. How efficient is your application? Some open questions • Do you cache everything you could to save traffic? (Immutable = cacheable) @a_meba
40. How efficient is your application? Some open questions • Do you cache everything you could to save traffic? (Immutable = cacheable) • Do you optimize your database calls? These can get resource-heavy. @a_meba
41. How efficient is your application? Some open questions • Do you cache everything you could to save traffic? (Immutable = cacheable) • Do you optimize your database calls? These can get resource-heavy. • Do you (de)serialize data needlessly? Should you switch to a binary format instead? @a_meba
42. How efficient is your application? Some open questions • Do you cache everything you could to save traffic? (Immutable = cacheable) • Do you optimize your database calls? These can get resource-heavy. • Do you (de)serialize data needlessly? Should you switch to a binary format instead? • JVM? How about GraalVM! @a_meba
43. How efficient is your application? Some open questions • Do you cache everything you could to save traffic? (Immutable = cacheable) • Do you optimize your database calls? These can get resource-heavy. • Do you (de)serialize data needlessly? Should you switch to a binary format instead? • JVM? How about GraalVM! • Are some languages more efficient than others (Java vs Go)? @a_meba
44. How efficient is your application? Some open questions • Do you cache everything you could to save traffic? (Immutable = cacheable) • Do you optimize your database calls? These can get resource-heavy. • Do you (de)serialize data needlessly? Should you switch to a binary format instead? • JVM? How about GraalVM! • Are some languages more efficient than others (Java vs Go)? • Maybe drop threads and use coroutines instead? @a_meba
45. How efficient is your application? Some open questions • Do you cache everything you could to save traffic? (Immutable = cacheable) • Do you optimize your database calls? These can get resource-heavy. • Do you (de)serialize data needlessly? Should you switch to a binary format instead? • JVM? How about GraalVM! • Are some languages more efficient than others (Java vs Go)? • Maybe drop threads and use coroutines instead? • Smaller. Docker. Images. @a_meba
46. Packets Environmental costs of infrastructure other people own. @a_meba
47. It’s not me, it’s you Your dependencies also count @a_meba
48. It’s not me, it’s you • Remove unused dependencies. Your dependencies also count @a_meba
49. It’s not me, it’s you • Remove unused dependencies. • Assess services like Heroku, Travis, Dockerhub, … Your dependencies also count @a_meba
50. It’s not me, it’s you • Remove unused dependencies. • Assess services like Heroku, Travis, Dockerhub, … • If applicable, switch to GitHub Actions because your build runs where your code is. Your dependencies also count @a_meba
51. It’s not me, it’s you • Remove unused dependencies. • Assess services like Heroku, Travis, Dockerhub, … • If applicable, switch to GitHub Actions because your build runs where your code is. • When choosing new technologies, make an environmental sustainability assessment of each option. Your dependencies also count @a_meba
52. Process How people work in your organization and how you deliver your product to your users. @a_meba
53. Meat is tasty. A future is tastier. Travel 2.88t CO 2 Round flight from Oslo to Barcelona for KubeCon for your DevOps team of 4. 1 Meat 5.99t CO 2 Saved by providing only vegetarian food at a company canteen for 200 people in a month.2 Idle resources 2.2t CO 2 Saved by switching off 200 laptops for the night for a month. 3 @a_meba
54. A greener office A greener application @a_meba
55. A greener office • Public transport tickets for all employees. • Safe bike parking on premises. • Promote home office. • Six hour workdays. • Conferences? Accessible by train or video stream. A greener application @a_meba
56. A greener office • Public transport tickets for all employees. • Safe bike parking on premises. • Promote home office. • Six hour workdays. • Conferences? Accessible by train or video stream. • Update your company’s device policy to exchange equipment less often. • Turn off screens, lights & computers for the night. A greener application @a_meba
57. Where to start @a_meba
58. ClimateAction.Tech recommends: 1 0 1 Sustainability statement Creates a feeling of shared purpose. 0 2 Gather data & ideas Stick to same methodology throughout whole process. 0 3 Appoint a task force Remove obstacles, keep momentum going. @a_meba
59. Find allies in your company Example: We have a weekly Academy at Finn, where we have talks, brainstorm. I held an Academy and asked colleagues about their ideas. I used some of them here. @a_meba
60. Turn off Finn.no from 01:00-05:00 @a_meba
61. Don’t give up
62. Resources To help you get started • ClimateAction.Tech slack • Green Web Foundation’s website • This article that outlines a good process • A short summary of environmental sustainability of cloud providers • Greenpeace’s Click Clean reports @a_meba
63. Get to work @a_meba
64. In times of crisis, we need to be efficient, resourceful, and caring about each other. @a_meba @a_meba
65. Thank you! Marta Paciorkowska Office hours @ FInn’s stand: 13-14 @a_meba thatmarta.wordpress.com @a_meba
66. Confidential Customized for Lorem Ipsum LLC Version 1.0 Credits Images on slides 1, 3, 4, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 21, 51, 57, 59, 60, 63, 65: Marta Paciorkowska Images on slides 13, 35, 58: Rawpixel.com Image on slide 24: Volkswagen @a_meba Image on slide 61: Finn.no AS Images on slide 37: The Green Web Foundation A huge thank you to Kim Tore Jensen, Magdalena Kowalczyk and Chris Adams.