To over come the lack of transparency around energy and emissions in the cloud space, we need to hack the open source cloud platforms, and write that transparency in.
Can we hack open source cloud platforms to help reduce emissions? cloudstack collab
1. Can we hack open
source #cloud platforms
to help reduce
emissions?
Tom Raftery
cloudstack collaboration conference 2012,
Las Vegas
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2. Tom Raftery
⢠Lead analyst, energy and
sustainability practice,
RedMonk
⢠CIX, Chip & Zenith
⢠GreenMonk.net
⢠twitter.com/tomraftery
⢠tom@redmonk.com
⢠+34 677 695 468
⢠SlideShare.net/TomRaftery
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CIX, Chip & Zenith - involvement with Cloud, going back to mid 90âs
3. Data?
http://www.wspenvironmental.com/media/docs/ourlocations/usa/NRDC-WSP_Cloud_Computing.pdf
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WSP Environmental & NRDC report on cloud says cloud can reduce emissions - good
However:
Lots of assumptions
No real data
4. Garret FitzGerald 1926-2011
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Unlikely politician - highly intelligent academic, unimpeachable integrity, head in the clouds(!)
5. Garret FitzGerald
Photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/caribb/5391899550/
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Before he became a politician -
In 1949 analyzed the earliest published AeroďŹot timetables, and produced one of the ďŹrst accurate
estimations of the size of Russia's airliner ďŹeet - previously a closely guarded secret
6. Garret FitzGerald
Photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/steve_brace/2568478072/
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KGB thought he was a spy!
And look an image with KGB logo - and a sleeping cat!
Proving thereâs no such thing as security by obscurity & the internet rocks!
7. Cloud problem
No transparency
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8. Problem
http://greenmonk.net/2011/07/21/carbon-disclosure-projects-emissions-reduction-claims-for-cloud-computing-are-ďŹawed/
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Something I have been blogging about for quite a while
9. Problem
http://greenmonk.net/2012/01/09/is-cloud-computing-green/
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And giving conference talks about it as well
10. Problem
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/technology/data-centers-waste-vast-amounts-of-energy-belying-industry-image.html
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Data centers use vast amounts of electricity
Typically only 6-12% of the electricity powering their servers goes to perform computations - McKinsey &
Co.
Rest used to keep servers idling and ready in case of a surge in activity - dynamic provisioning - i.e. the
elastic in ec2!
11. Energy â Emissions
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NYT article was good but concentrated on energy
Bear in mind that energy use and emissions are not necessarily related
Energy is not a proxy for emissions
12. Facebook
Photo http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=193287527693&aid=183026
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A practical example of this is...
Prineville site
Open Compute - open sourced the design of DC & hardware!
13. Energy
âAs of the end of Q3 2011, the Prineville data center
had a power usage effectiveness (PUE)Â of 1.08...
much lower than the industry standard of 1.5.
Facebookâs energy consumption per unit of computing
power has declined by 38%â
http://opencompute.org/about/energy-efficiency/
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14. Emissions
http://www.pacificorp.com/es/mining.html
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58% of its energy from coal
12% from gas
=> over 70% from fossil fuel directly.
22.5% is purchased from other suppliers so could also be fossil fuel.
15. Dublin
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2011/08/07/lightning-in-dublin-knocks-amazon-microsoft-data-centers-offline/
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Microsoft
Amazon
Google
IBM
SunGard
Digital Realty Trust
All have signiďŹcant DCâs in Dublin
16. Emissions
Ireland sources 84% of electricity from fossil fuels
http://www.eirgrid.com/operations/systemperformancedata/electricitystatistics/
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17. Emissions
UK sources >90% of its electricity from fossil fuels
https://restats.decc.gov.uk/cms/national-renewables-statistics/
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âRenewables contribution to UK electricity generation was 9.4% in 2011â
18. Emissions
http://www.pacificorp.com/es/mining.html
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The carbon intensity of a data centerâs electricity is more important than itâs efficiency!
19. Cloud providers
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Partial list of cloud companies
20. Clean cloud providers
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Rackspaceâs UK data center runs on 100% renewable power
Google have large renewable investments and their operations are carbon neutral
21. Clean cloud providers
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Greenqloud are based in Iceland where elec is 100% renewable
22. Clean cloud providers
http://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/sustainable-energy/
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Amazon claim 0 carbon for two of their regions
23. Clean cloud providers
https://twitter.com/jeffbarr/status/251306461836222464
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but demur when asked to back up the claim
How can we verify it is true?
*Sound of crickets chirping*
26. Cloud emissions data
providers
http://www.sapsustainabilityreport.com/greenhouse-gas-footprint
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This is as granular as the data gets!
27. Cloud emissions data
providers
http://www.salesforce.com/company/sustainability/savings.jsp
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Completely inaccurate depending on where in EU on premise is being hosted
If hosted in France or Spain with low carbon intensity - move to Salesforce could increase emissions
Wothout Salesforce emissions data, how do we know?
28. Cloud emissions data
providers
http://www.salesforce.com/company/sustainability/impact.jsp
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Reports 2 weeks late
Gives data for carbon saved, not carbon emitted
29. Cloud emissions data
providers
http://my.greenqloud.com
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Also publishing CO2 savings, as opposed to emissions
31. Why donât they?
Photo http://www.ďŹickr.com/photos/nathanmarciniak/2207977707/
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Hide their emissions
32. Why donât they?
http://www.ďŹickr.com/photos/jwgreen/340528570/
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Lack of reporting standards
33. Outcome
âIf you canât measure it, you
canât manage itâ
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Lack of focus on emissions => increased emissions
34. Reminder
A quick recap of 2012 so far...
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35. Recap
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In
 the
 third
 quarter
 alone,
 crop
 produc2on
 dropped
 $12
 billion
 âdue
 to
 this
 summerâs
 severe
 heat
 and
 drought.â
Â
Â
Drop
 in
 US
 farm
 inventories
 was
 so
 sharp
 in
 the
 last
 quarter
 that
 it
 wiped
 0.2%
 oďŹ
 of
 U.S.
 GDP
 in
 the
 latest
 revision.
In
 Texas,
 the
 drought
 has
 killed
 more
 than
 300
 million
 trees.
Â
Nearly
 98%
 of
 Nebraska
 is
 in
 extreme
 to
 excep2onal
 drought
 â
 3
 months
 ago,
 none
 of
 it
 was!
hSp://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/09/30/929381/epic-Ââdust-Ââbowl-Ââof-Ââ2012-Ââcon2nues/
36. Recap
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/27/us-usa-wildďŹres-idUSBRE85L1DD20120627 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19433715
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One of the worst wildďŹre seasons on record
WildďŹres in US and EU
38. Recap
http://phys.org/news/2012-11-sea-levels-faster-ipcc.html
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Sea-levels rising 60% faster than IPCC projections
28 November in journal Environmental Research Letters
rate of 3.2mm/year compared to 2mm/year in IPCC report
39. Recap
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/02/us-usa-weather-records-idUSBRE8611EL20120702
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From June 25th - July 1st 2012 in US 2,171 US records broken or matched
In June 2012 that number is 3,215
40. Recap
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2012/09/arctic-sea-ice-extent-settles-at-record-seasonal-minimum/
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Huge issues of ice loss in the arctic
41. Recap
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2012/09/arctic-sea-ice-extent-settles-at-record-seasonal-minimum/
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Lack of focus on emissions => increased emissions
42. Recap
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2012/09/arctic-sea-ice-extent-settles-at-record-seasonal-minimum/
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Minimum was 760,000 square kilometers (293,000 square miles) below previous record minimum extent
in the satellite record, which occurred on September 18, 2007. This is an area about the size of the state
of Texas.
3.29 million square kilometers (1.27 million square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average minimum,
representing an area nearly twice the size of the state of Alaska
18% below 2007 and 49% below the 1979 to 2000 average
43. Recap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YegdEOSQotE
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Thatâs not to mention the issue of arctic methane - what its effects will be are, as yet, unknown (but they
wonât be good!)
44. Recap
http://www.unep.org/newscentre/Default.aspx?DocumentID=2698&ArticleID=9338&l=en
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Not factored into emissions accounting or climate models before now
Can lead to infrastructure failure
climate projections indicate substantial loss of permafrost by 2100
Positive feedback
45. Cloud?
Cloud computingâs emissions donât directly cause all these
issues.
But they do play a significant part.
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46. Solution?
Open Source
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Hereâs where we can help
49. Solution?
http://www.ďŹickr.com/photos/dixieroadrash/3769522479/
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Get the update accepted back into the core
50. Solution?
http://www.amee.com/products/
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Companies like AMEE already provide APIâs for this kind of info
51. Solution?
http://www.eucalyptus.com/about/customers
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And thus distributed with next update
52. Solution?
http://www.cloudstack.org/users.html
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And thus distributed with next update
53. Solution?
http://www.openstack.org/foundation/companies/
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And thus distributed with next update
54. btw
https://www.mastodonc.com/dashboard
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The Mastodon C dashboard gives stats on emissions from various cloud providers - in case youâre
interested in keeping your cloud emissions down.
Lot of it is guestimated data - need real data.
55. Carbon
http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/sustainability/publications/low-carbon-economy-index/index.jhtml
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PwC - largest of the "Big Four" accountancy firms
2012 carbon report found CO2 emissions reductions of 0.8% from 2000-2011
To stop Global Warming exceeding 2C
Need to reduce CO2 emissions by 5.1% every year until 2050
56. Good News
http://www.ďŹickr.com/photos/traftery/7202866726/
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Jim Hagemann Snabe - co-CEO of SAP
Wants SAP to be âa leader in this spaceâ
57. Good News
http://solidďŹre.com/fueled-by-solidďŹre/cloudsigma/
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Robert Jenkins, CEO of CloudSigma (Swiss based Carbon Neutral cloud co.)
Getting ready to implement this
58. Good News
http://my.greenqloud.com
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GreenQloud are going to contribute their code to CloudStack in Q2 next year
59. Conclusion
Adding emissions metrics & reporting to
cloud computing will help reduce emissions.
Question is - is anyone up for it?
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60. Thanks!
Contact information:
Tom Raftery
Principal Analyst, Energy & Sustainability, RedMonk
Tom@redmonk.com,
GreenMonk.net,
Twitter.com/tomraftery
+34 677 695 468
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