Cloud computing is changing our lives but this change comes with a cost - pollution. Can we hack open source cloud platforms to make them report their energy and (more importantly) their emissions, so we can choose the cleanest cloud? Video of this talk is now online at http://redmonk.com/tv/2012/10/24/can-we-hack-open-source-cloud-platforms-to-help-reduce-emissions/

1. Can we hack open
source #cloud platforms
to help reduce
emissions?
Tom Raftery
#Monktoberfest 2012, Portland Maine
1

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
2
CIX, Chip & Zenith - involvement with Cloud, going back to late 90’s

3. Garret FitzGerald 1926-2011
3
Unlikely politician - highly intelligent academic, unimpeachable integrity, head in the clouds(!)

4. Garret FitzGerald
Photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/caribb/5391899550/
4
Before he became a politician -
In 1949 analyzed the earliest published Aeroflot timetables, and produced one of the first accurate
estimations of the size of Russia's airliner fleet - previously a closely guarded secret

5. Garret FitzGerald
Photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/steve_brace/2568478072/
5
KGB thought he was a spy!
And look an image with KGB logo - and a sleeping cat!
Proving there’s no such thing as security by obscurity & the internet rocks!

6. Cloud problem
No transparency
6

7. Problem
http://greenmonk.net/2011/07/21/carbon-disclosure-projects-emissions-reduction-claims-for-cloud-computing-are-flawed/
7
Something I have been blogging about for quite a while

8. Problem
http://greenmonk.net/2012/01/09/is-cloud-computing-green/
8
And giving conference talks about it as well

9. Problem
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/technology/data-centers-waste-vast-amounts-of-energy-belying-industry-image.html
9
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!

10. Energy ≠ Emissions
10
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

11. Facebook
Photo http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=193287527693&aid=183026
11
A practical example of this is...
Prineville site
Open Compute - open sourced the design of DC & hardware!

12. Energy
“As of the end of Q3 2011, the Prineville data center
had a power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.08...
much lower than the industry standard of 1.5.
Facebook’s energy consumption per unit of computing
power has declined by 38%”
http://opencompute.org/about/energy-efficiency/
12

13. Emissions
http://www.pacificorp.com/es/mining.html
13
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.

14. Dublin
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2011/08/07/lightning-in-dublin-knocks-amazon-microsoft-data-centers-offline/
14
Microsoft
Amazon
Google
IBM
SunGard
Digital Realty Trust
All have significant DC’s in Dublin

15. Emissions
Ireland sources 84% of electricity from fossil fuels
http://www.eirgrid.com/operations/systemperformancedata/electricitystatistics/
15

16. Emissions
UK sources >90% of its electricity from fossil fuels
https://restats.decc.gov.uk/cms/national-renewables-statistics/
16
“Renewables contribution to UK electricity generation was 9.4% in 2011”

17. Emissions
http://www.pacificorp.com/es/mining.html
17
The carbon intensity of a data center’s electricity is more important than it’s efficiency!

18. Cloud providers
18
Partial list of cloud companies

19. Clean cloud providers
19
Rackspace’s UK data center runs on 100% renewable power
Google have large renewable investments and their operations are carbon neutral

20. Clean cloud providers
20
Greenqloud are based in Iceland where elec is 100% renewable

21. Clean cloud providers
http://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/sustainable-energy/
21
Amazon claim 0 carbon for two of their regions

22. Clean cloud providers
https://twitter.com/jeffbarr/status/251306461836222464
22
but demur when asked to back up the claim
How can we verify it is true?
*Sound of crickets chirping*

23. Problem
Data?
23

24. Cloud emissions data
24
Partial list of cloud companies

25. Cloud emissions data
providers
http://www.sapsustainabilityreport.com/greenhouse-gas-footprint
25
This is as granular as the data gets!

26. Cloud emissions data
providers
http://www.salesforce.com/company/sustainability/impact.jsp
26
Reports 2 weeks late
Gives data for carbon saved, not carbon emitted

27. Cloud emissions data
providers
http://www.salesforce.com/company/sustainability/savings.jsp
27
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. Why don’t they?
Photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/pahudson/7742561802/
28
Competitive intelligence

29. Why don’t they?
Photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/nathanmarciniak/2207977707/
29
Hide their emissions

30. Why don’t they?
Photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasfisherlibrary/6887173879/
30
Lack of reporting standards
This being Monktoberfest, I had to get in a gratuitous beer shot

31. Outcome
“If you can’t measure it, you
can’t manage it”
31
Lack of focus on emissions => increased emissions

32. Reminder
A quick recap of 2012 so far...
32

33. Recap
33
In
the
third
quarter
alone,
crop
produc2on
dropped
$12
billion
“due
to
this
summer’s
severe
heat
and
drought.”
Drop
in
US
farm
inventories
was
so
sharp
in
the
last
quarter
that
it
wiped
0.2%
off
of
U.S.
GDP
in
the
latest
revision.
In
Texas,
the
drought
has
killed
more
than
300
million
trees.
Nearly
98%
of
Nebraska
is
in
extreme
to
excep2onal
drought
—
3
months
ago,
none
of
it
was!
hSp://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/09/30/929381/epic-­‐dust-­‐bowl-­‐of-­‐2012-­‐con2nues/

34. Recap
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/27/us-usa-wildfires-idUSBRE85L1DD20120627 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19433715
34
One of the worst wildfire seasons on record
Wildfires in US and EU

35. Recap
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/29/world/asia/pakistan-floods/index.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19767627
35
Serious floods

36. Recap
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/02/us-usa-weather-records-idUSBRE8611EL20120702
36
From June 25th - July 1st 2012 in US 2,171 US records broken or matched
In June 2012 that number is 3,215

37. Recap
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2012/09/arctic-sea-ice-extent-settles-at-record-seasonal-minimum/
37
Huge issues of ice loss in the arctic

38. Recap
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2012/09/arctic-sea-ice-extent-settles-at-record-seasonal-minimum/
38
Lack of focus on emissions => increased emissions

39. Recap
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2012/09/arctic-sea-ice-extent-settles-at-record-seasonal-minimum/
39
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

40. Recap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YegdEOSQotE
40
That’s not to mention the issue of arctic methane - what its effects will be are, as yet, unknown (but they
won’t be good!)

41. Cloud?
Cloud computing’s emissions don’t directly cause all these
issues.
But they do play a significant part.
41

42. Solution?
Open Source
42
Here’s where we can help

43. Solution?
43

44. Solution?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/viamoi/3465644425/
44
Why not fork open source cloud platforms?

45. Solution?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/traftery/5369447689/
45
Add in emissions metrics & reporting tools

46. Solution?
http://www.amee.com/products/
46
Companies like AMEE already provide API’s for this kind of info

47. Solution?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dixieroadrash/3769522479/
47
Get the update accepted back into the core

48. Solution?
http://www.eucalyptus.com/about/customers
48
And thus distributed with next update

49. Solution?
http://www.cloudstack.org/users.html
49
And thus distributed with next update

50. Solution?
http://www.openstack.org/foundation/companies/
50
And thus distributed with next update

51. btw
https://www.mastodonc.com/dashboard
51
The Mastodon C dashboard gives stats on emissions from various cloud providers - in case you’re
interested in keeping your cloud emissions down.
Lot of it is guestimated data - need real data.

52. Conclusion
Adding emissions metrics & reporting to
cloud computing will help reduce emissions.
Question is - is anyone up for it?
52

53. Thanks!
Contact information:
Tom Raftery
Principal Analyst, Energy & Sustainability, RedMonk
Tom@redmonk.com,
GreenMonk.net,
Twitter.com/tomraftery
+34 677 695 468
53