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?

Measuring your CO2 spend in the cloud

As we saw in Chapter 4, Data Center and the Cloud, the three most dominant cloud hyperscalers – Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google – heavily emphasize their commitment to sustainability. All three vendors now provide a solution to understand carbon emissions and provide tools or recommendations to reduce the carbon footprint. The methodology varies between the three vendors in terms of GHG scope completeness, calculation approach, and coverage of services, which questions the comparability. There are also other vendors on the market that provide the same capability and this space is far from standardized and mature.

It is essential to have a holistic view of your landscape as a company, but so far, limited integration capabilities between the vendors have been observed. Therefore, you must look elsewhere to find a combined representation of your cloud estate. Toward the end of this section, we will look at a...