Book Image

Sustainable IT Playbook for Technology Leaders

By : Niklas Sundberg
Book Image

Sustainable IT Playbook for Technology Leaders

By: Niklas Sundberg

Overview of this book

We are at a critical point in human history. Humanity is under threat, but all is not lost. We can take action! But how? Sustainable IT Playbook for Technology Leaders will show you how. It will walk you through the construction and implementation of a sustainable IT strategy and enable you to do your bit for the future of mankind. The book is split into three parts. Part I details the “why” and the clear and present danger that humanity faces today: the climate crisis. How did we get here, what are the immediate threats, what are the planetary boundaries that we need to peel back to safe levels, and what impact does IT have on society at large? Part II will focus on the "what.” It examines the nitty-gritty details of what we can do to unlock significant returns on sustainable investments toward a more sustainable future. Part III, the final part of the book, focuses on the “how.” How do you turn your ideas into action? What do you need to do to establish your baseline and your direction of travel towards your objective? This part provides tangible case studies and explains how you can start your journey today to begin delivering global and impactful objectives. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to plan, implement, and communicate a sustainable IT strategy and set yourself apart as a progressive technology leader.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Part 1: Why Is Sustainable IT Important?
4
Part 2: What Are Sustainable IT Practices?
12
Part 3: How Do You Accelerate Sustainable IT?

Data centers and the cloud

In 2020, data centers globally devoured between 200–250 TWh of electricity, roughly accumulating to 1-2% of global consumption (Kamiya 2021). This does not include crypto mining, which roughly consumed 100 TWh of electricity in 2020. Data centers and network links are the engine room of the digital economy, providing the backbone of connectivity and the internet as we know it today. Data centers are a very resource-intense operation, and the demand keeps surging, so it is critical to set a path toward a sustainable digital infrastructure.

No matter whether you house your servers, storage, or network equipment in your own data centers, outsource them to a hosting provider, or place them with one of the global cloud hyperscalers such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google, IBM, Oracle, Tencent, or Alibaba, it is probably one of your most energy resource-intense operations. Moving from on-premises to the cloud comes with several business benefits...