Sustainability in Software Engineering - How to make a difference

Transcript

1. ©2021 VMware, Inc.
   Sustainability in
   Software Engineering
   How to make a difference
   Martin Lippert
   Spring Tools Lead & Sustainability Ambassador,
   VMware
   February 2022
   

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   ©2021 VMware, Inc.
   Climate change is real.
   There is no need to argue about whether
   climate change exists, is human made, or
   life-threatening – all this is real and urgent.
   We need to stop climate change, not
   discuss whether it is real or not.
   

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   This is a huge challenge, and
   we can make a huge
   difference.
   Software is eating the world and can have a
   huge impact. Let’s not wait for others to
   solve the problem. Everybody is involved –
   we all share the same responsibility.
   

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4. ©2021 VMware, Inc. 4
   Contributions to
   climate change
   Greenhouse gases:
   • CO2: 74.36% (carbon)
   • CH4: 17.32%
   • N20: 6.19%
   • F-Gas: 2.13%
   

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5. We need to
   decarbonize the entire
   world of software
   engineering.
   

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6. ©2021 VMware, Inc. 6
   Employee
   Commute
   Energy
   Production
   Business
   Travel
   Food in the
   office
   Hardware
   Hardware
   Production
   Heating /
   Cooling
   Data Center
   Operation
   Network Traffic
   CPU Cycles
   Memory
   Consumption SWAG
   production
   Shipping /
   Transport
   Energy
   consumption
   There is a wide range of topics
   

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   89%
   7%
   4%
   Energy - 89%
   Land-use - 7%
   Industrial
   processes - 4%
   What causes carbon emissions?
   

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   Energy Production
   

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9. The energy question.
   We need 100% renewable energy.
   This will take a very long time.
   And we don‘t have a very long
   time.
   

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    Increase renewable energy
    production
    Decrease energy consumption
    We need to tackle this from both sides
    

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    Electricity
    Generation
    Losses: 60%
    40 Watts
    Data Center
    Losses: 30%
    Server Losses: 80%
    28 Watts
    100 Watts
    <5 Watts
    Useful
    Computing
    Source: Rocky Mountain Institute
    Impact of saving energy
    

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    Energy Consumption
    

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    Employee
    Commute
    Energy
    Production
    Business
    Travel
    Food in the
    office
    Hardware
    Hardware
    Production
    Heating /
    Cooling
    Data Center
    Operation
    Network Traffic
    CPU Cycles
    Memory
    Consumption SWAG
    production
    Shipping /
    Transport
    Energy
    consumption
    Energy consumption
    

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    ©2021 VMware, Inc.
    Rule of thumb:
    Try to run your software with less hardware.
    

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    Step 0: Virtualize to use less hardware.
    

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16. • Hardware production consumes
    lots of energy and resources.
    • Buying less hardware is
    cheaper and better for the
    environment.
    

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    Step 1: Do not run your software.
    

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18. • Only run software when
    necessary (scale to zero).
    • Eliminate “zombies”. They
    consume energy, space, and
    hardware.
    

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19. ©2021 VMware, Inc. 19
    1. In 2019, VMware consolidated a datacenter in
    Singapore. 66% of the host machines were
    “zombies“. They were decomissioned.
    2. In a 2017 study, Jon Koomey surveyed 16,000 non-
    virtualized and virtualized physical servers, across 10
    datacenters. He concluded that 25% of the physical
    servers were “zombies“ and 30% of the virtual
    machines were “zombies“.
    Two pieces of evidence
    

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    Step 2: Run your software using
    less energy.
    

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21. ©2021 VMware, Inc. 21
    Memory constantly consumes energy
    • 1GB RAM consumes about 2W (varying)*
    CPUs consume a lot of energy
    • Lets assume an average of 50W*
    Rule of thumb
    • Reserve less memory
    • Reserve less vCPUs
    (* average rough number, varies depending on type of RAM,
    power vs. idle mode, and other factors)
    

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    A real win-win situation
    Fight climate change AND
    reduce cost of operation
    

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23. To put that into perspective
    One flight from FRA -> SFO,
    Economy, 747-8
    ~1883 kgCO2
    Dell PowerEdge R560, 32GB,
    2 CPUs, x4 300 GB HDD
    ~1930 kgCO2 / year
    

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    Where to run the software?
    

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    Choose data center in cold regions (less cooling needed)
    Choose data center where the energy mix is best (depending on solar/wind conditions)
    Dynamically reschedule when conditions change
    ©2021 VMware, Inc. 25
    Choose data center in cold regions (less cooling needed)
    Choose data center where the energy mix is best (depending on solar/wind conditions)
    Dynamically reschedule when conditions change
    

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    How to evaluate/measure?
    

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    Last Resort
    Offsetting emissions
    A topic of its own
    

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    Offsetting is generally a good idea
    • Offsetting projects generally do good things
    • Choose the project wisely, not every offsetting project really pays off
    The important difference is:
    • Avoid emissions in the future (many offsetting projects are in this category)
    • Vs. Actively removing the same amount of CO2 from the atmosphere
    ©2021 VMware, Inc. 29
    Offsetting is generally a good idea
    • Offsetting projects generally do good things
    • Choose the project wisely, not every offsetting project really pays off
    The important difference is:
    • Avoid emissions in the future (many offsetting projects are in this category)
    • Vs. Actively removing the same amount of CO2 from the atmosphere
    

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    ©2021 VMware, Inc.
    Innovate
    

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    Native Spring Applications
    The Spring team works hard to enable
    native image generation using the
    GraalVM native image technology for
    Spring Boot applications
    This can turn out to have a huge effect
    on the environment
    

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    Scheduling on Kubernetes
    

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    The Carbon Intensity of a
    software will be an important
    differentiating factor in the
    industry
    

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    The next step in
    innovation
    

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    Net negative business models
    The more you sell or use, the
    better for the climate
    

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    ©2021 VMware, Inc.
    It is our responsibility as
    software engineers to create
    software that is carbon
    efficient
    

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    ©2021 VMware, Inc.
    Learn more:
    Green Software Foundation
    https://greensoftware.foundation
    Principles for sustainable software engineering
    https://principles.green
    Course by Microsoft:
    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/sustainable-
    software-engineering-overview/
    

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38. ©2021 VMware, Inc.
    Thank You
    Martin Lippert
    @martinlippert
    lippertm@vmware.com
    Evaluate the session and give feedback
    

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