Green IT and Sustainable Service Providers

• Green IT promotes sustainability and economic efficiency
• The presentation is by Dipl.-Inf. Sebastian Stoll

Learning Objectives

• Acquire knowledge for the efficient selection of sustainable service providers in the IT environment
• Learn about easily implementable measures for saving electricity/energy in ITK systems

Selecting Sustainable Service Providers

• Consider what certifications the service provider has
• Check if the service provider or its products meet an eco-norm or eco-label, like Blauer Engel or EPEAT
• Determine if the service provider uses certified sustainable services/products, such as green electricity
• Inquire where the service provider is located, preferring regional options or countries with high environmental standards
• Determine if the service provider is transparent or secretive
• Check if a visit/audit is possible or if remote audits are feasible for distant providers
• Review the company's certifications and verify their current validity
• Assess the company's reputation on social media and in customer reviews
• Look into which service providers the competition uses
• A best practice example is www.posteo.de

Saving Power with Desktops: Preliminary Consumption Measurement

• Inventory hardware, noting the number of systems, locations, and technical specifications
• Document software and usage frequency, especially for power-intensive applications
• Plan measurements in terms of when, where, and how; determine if measurement is necessary
• Inform users and ask for normal usage during measurement
• Make a qualified estimate if an estimate is needed

Saving Power with Desktops: Consumption Measurement

• Measure over 24 hours on workdays, or better, for a week
• Take into account holiday times or predictable deviations in behavior
• Measure at least three similar workstations simultaneously and average the consumption
• Pay attention to home office/shared desktop work
• Conduct spot checks if there are more than 10 workstations
• Measure total consumption at the power strip if used; otherwise, measure the monitor and PC separately

Best Practice: Power Consumption of a Modern Desktop Computer

• Classic desktop computers typically have a 35-70 W CPU, a maximum 5 W hard drive, onboard graphics (Full-HD/UHD), a 100 W graphics card, and a maximum 200 W power supply
• Notebooks typically consume 70 W total, have SSD or NVMe drives and onboard graphics

Saving Power with Desktops: Optimization - Part 1

• Utilize SSDs/NVMe drives
• Use mobile CPUs when possible
• Utilize DDR5-RAM and little memory
• Replace large desktop computers with notebooks/mini/micro-PCs
• Switch to monitors with EPEAT-Gold-Rating
• Optimize standby settings, especially on TVs
• Use energy-saving settings, including on routers

Saving Power with Desktops: Optimization - Part 2

• Use switchable power strips with USB ports
• Reduce screen brightness and use ECO modes on monitors
• Share printers, routers, and storage
• Phase out hardware older than 10 years
• Use printers with the "Blauer Engel" certification

Saving Power with Desktops: Optimization - Part 3

• Use Thin Clients
• Avoid wireless keyboards/mice
• Virtualize desktops
• Apply over-provisioning on NAS or workstations
• Consider switching/optimizing application software or server-based solutions

Software Optimizations: Determining Software Performance Requirements

• Find the performance specification, often available on the manufacturer's website
• Determine how much RAM the software needs
• Find out the graphics requirements
• Test the software on a single system and measure its power consumption there

Software Optimizations – Part 1

• Remove unnecessary software and plug-ins
• Regularly update software or replace it with more efficient software
• Don't forget firmware updates
• Optimize settings related to caching, CPU usage, databases and activate power saving options.
• Deactivate/remove unnecessary background processes/daemons

Software Optimizations – Part 2

• Have proprietary software optimized, and encourage developers to fix power-hungry bugs
• Use cleaning functionalities/tools
• Reinstall/repair "broken" systems
• For larger desktop installations, specify in detail which software is permitted (e.g., through software distribution systems)

Useful Tools/Commands

• Speccy and Hardinfo gather hardware specs
• Task Manager and ps ax help monitor processes
• Windows-Settings, Policy-Manager and aptitude/apt handles package management
• CCleaner and Ninite streamline cleaning and software installation.

Databases

• Set indices appropriately
• Select the right database for its intended usage, such as transactional, hash, CSV, or SQLite
• Use the correct data type (0/1 = Boolean, 1 to 65000 = INT)
• Optimize queries, including using GPUs
• Use caching
• Regularly and promptly archive unneeded data
• Consolidate grown databases
• Utilize analysis features/tools

Saving Power on Linux Servers

• Remove superfluous software and choose software carefully
• Correctly size the server and use virtual or cloud systems when suitable
• Use tools like Powertop
• Automate tasks with Ansible/Terraform
• Use caching
• Make regular updates/system updates/reboots
• Use slim Linux distributions like Debian, CentOS, CleanLinux, or FreeBSD

Saving Power on Linux Servers (Continued)

• Tune system and software parameters
• Optimize RAIDs (RAID level)
• Only start necessary services automatically/per Cron
• Only backup required data using incremental backups when possible
• Use compression modules on the web server
• Upgrade from http1 to at least http2 with a preference for http3
• Filter emails on the server

Saving Power in the Network

• Use energy-saving settings and update devices
• Optimize protocols/protocol stack
• Deliver data compressed
• Always deliver HTML via http2
• Avoid transferring files larger than 5MB via SMTP
• Use 4G/5G instead of 3G and WIFI 6/7
• Deploy Eco-Dect telephones that have the "Blauer Engel"
• Switch off unused ports/links or dismantle.
• Perhaps placing Routers/network segments into standby through time control.

Saving power

• Pay attention to the lighting/air conditioning of the workplace
• Consider the network technology for more than 15 workplaces
• Consider getting additional consultants
• Building rehabilitation/location change

Best Practices

• AWS shows that employing Zstd enables AWS to save 30% storage
• Switch from Lzo to Zstd
• Savings in the exabyte range