The Cost of Data [RubyConfAU]

The internet grows every day. Every second, one of us is making calls to an API, uploading images, and streaming the latest content. But what is the cost of this—is it free? This talk explores the reality of data, and what responsibilities we have as creators and consumers of tech.

Transcript

1. Vaidehi Joshi
   The Cost of Data
   

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2. The Cost
   of Data
   Vaidehi Joshi
   

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5. I love learning
   how stuff works!
   

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6. The internet
   

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7. The internet
   is built on many
   things.
   

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8. Everything we put
   on the web is stored
   somewhere.
   

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9. But how many of
   us think about this?
   

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10. I certainly didn’t!
    Until recently.
    

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11. Data center
    

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12. https://pixabay.com/photos/server-space-the-server-room-dark-2160321
    

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13. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ibm_media/33838065805
    

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14. Cloud Providers
    

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15. 65% utilization rate on ☁
    15% utilization rate in
    

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16. 65% utilization rate on ☁
    15% utilization rate in
    ¼ fewer servers provisioned
    

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17. Percentage of data center traffic from ☁
    0
    0.25
    0.5
    0.75
    1
    2016 2021
    96%
    88%
    

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18. Seems good, right?
    

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19. SLA
    

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20. No downtime?
    

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22. ❄
    

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23. Hard to find data
    
    

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24. ~200 TWh
    1-3% of world’s electricity
    1 TWh = 1 trillion watts/hour
    

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25. The ICT sector creates
    2%
    of greenhouse gas emissions.
    

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26. The ICT sector’s carbon footprint
    is the same as
    the airline industry.
    

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27. Why??
    

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28. Why??
    Fossil fuels
    

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29. The State of Data Center Energy Use in 2018, Paul Johnston & Anne Currie
    

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30. 5 carbon neutral zones
    Offset your emissions*
    

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31. 5 carbon neutral zones
    Offset your emissions*
    *a carbon offset still means you’re emitting greenhouse gasses
    

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32. Not very
    transparent
    

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33. US-East-1
    
    Dominion Energy
    

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34. US-East-1
    
    +59%
    

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35. Carbon fee model ✅
    

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36. Investments
    Renewable energy
    certificates (RECs)
    

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37. Not entirely
    transparent
    .
    

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38. Carbon offsets
    $$$ renewable energy
    +1 clean KWh back into the grid for each dirty 1 KWh used
    

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39. Carbon offsets
    $$$ renewable energy
    +1 clean KWh back into the grid for each dirty 1 KWh used
    
    

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40. China
    66% increase in China’s data
    center industry between
    2019-2023
    

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41. No public data
    
    Limited renewables
    

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42. How will this scale
    into the future?
    

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43. It’s easy to
    increase usage.
    

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44. Global data
    traffic is growing.
    

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45. 28 billion
    

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46. Connected IoT devices (billions)
    0
    5
    10
    15
    20
    2017 2020
    20
    8.4
    

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47. © IEA
    

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48. © nature
    

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49. We need to think
    about this problem.
    

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50. Some of us are.
    

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55. Each of us
    has agency, too.
    

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56. Find out where
    your data lives.
    

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58. Migrate to a
    green region.
    

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59. Draw attention
    to this issue.
    

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61. Build things!
    

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63. Be aware.
    

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64. Denise Yu
    Paul Johnston
    Anne Currie
    @deniseyu21
    @pauldjohnston
    @anne_e_currie
    

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65. We are using
    a finite resource.
    

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66. We don’t know what
    the cost of data will be.
    

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67. I’m optimistic.
    

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68. You have a
    voice in this.
    

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69. Will you use it?
    

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70. Thank you!
    @vaidehijoshi
    https://bit.ly/2SH1Kk8
    

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