The costs in 2050

• $ trillions per year
• 19% loss to world economy

IT’s contribution

IT’s contribution

• Datacenters: ±1% of global CO₂
• Datacenters: ±1-1.5% of global energy
• Networking: ±1-1.5% of global energy

IT’s contribution

• Datacenters: ±1% of global CO₂
• Datacenters: ±1-1.5% of global energy
• Networking: ±1-1.5% of global energy

…and growing

IT’s contribution

• Datacenters: ±1% of global CO₂
• Datacenters: ±1-1.5% of global energy
• Networking: ±1-1.5% of global energy

Similar to aviation! ✈️

Jan Ouwens

│ EqualsVerifier │ jqno.nl │ 🦋jqno.nl

Personal things

I’m not perfect 😢

Personal things

Personal things

Personal things

My place in this

80s / 90s

“640k ought to be enough for everyone”

My place in this

Oulipo

Constraints

Developers

1. Machines got faster
2. Constraints got thrown out
3. …
4. Software got slower!?

Economic model of green software

Economic model of green software

The thing we can’t not talk about

The thing we can’t not talk about

Source: AI-generated

The thing we can’t not talk about

Isn’t AI bad for the climate?

The thing we can’t not talk about

1 ChatGPT query
≡
10 Google queries
≡
watch tv 50 seconds
≡
drive a car 1.2 meters
≡
upload 9 photos to social media

The thing we can’t not talk about

ChatGPT ≡ 20.000 households

The thing we can’t not talk about

We all use energy

We all emit CO₂

That’s ok

The thing we can’t not talk about

Where does your app spend energy?

• An AI chatbot?
• Unskippable video ads?
• Accept Bitcoin payments?

The thing we can’t not talk about

Everything has a footprint

So what else can we do?

So what else can we do?

Simplify infrastructure

Simplify infrastructure

• test
• accept
• prod

Simplify infrastructure

• test ?
• accept
• prod

Simplify infrastructure

• test
• accept
• prod

Simplify infrastructure

Simplify infrastructure

Advanced: LightSwitchOps

• Pull up at will
• Tear down at will

disaster recovery testing

Stop chasing nines

Stop chasing nines

99.9% uptime

Stop chasing nines

99.99% uptime

Stop chasing nines

99.999% uptime

Stop chasing nines

99.999% uptime ??

Stop chasing nines

← Monday to Saturday

Sunday →

Stop chasing nines

Stop chasing nines

Stop chasing nines

Stop chasing nines

Stop chasing nines

Stop chasing nines

Re-think your DB

Re-think your DB

Re-think your DB

SQLite is

• Stable
• Reliable
• Backward-compatible
• Billions(!) of deploys

Re-think your DB

Re-think your DB

Re-think your DB

Re-think your DB

Cons:

• Must carefully tweak defaults
• Only one concurrent write
• Must arrange for backups

Re-think your DB

Pros:

• No DB server
• Simplicity

Re-think your DB

Make small Docker images

Make small Docker images

• Need to be stored
     ↳ embedded CO₂
• Need to be transmitted
     ↳ actual CO₂

Make small Docker images

public class Main {
    public static void main(String...args) {
        System.out.println("Hello World!");
    }
}

↓

Make small Docker images

Make small Docker images

Make small Docker images

Make small Docker images

Make small Docker images

Make small Docker images

Make small Docker images

still…

16MB     >     64KB

Make small Docker images

Enable build caching

Enable build caching

Enable build caching

Enable build caching

Enable build caching

Enable build caching

Economic model of green software

Results

• 🤑 Our bosses
• 🚀 Our software
• 💚 The world
• 🥳 Us