Want to Create Software Sustainably? Anne Currie’s Got Ideas
Aug 15, 2024
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Anne Currie, a leading expert in sustainable tech with 30 years of experience, shares her insights on building resilient software. She discusses vital concepts like energy proportionality and how increased utilization enhances efficiency. Currie emphasizes the importance of architecting systems to harness renewable energy and addresses the challenges of greenwashing in the tech industry. With practical steps and real-world examples, she illustrates how software can dynamically adapt to resource fluctuations, turning sustainability into a competitive advantage.
Anne Currie emphasizes the importance of energy proportionality in software development, highlighting how operational usage affects energy efficiency and carbon emissions.
The podcast discusses the need for software engineers to adapt to renewable energy dynamics, advocating for resilience and flexibility in managing power consumption.
Deep dives
The Urgency of Green Software Literature
The podcast highlights a significant gap in the literature surrounding green software, with few dedicated resources available compared to topics like artificial intelligence. Anne Currie explains that writing on sustainability in software is complex, covering various disciplines. This complexity, combined with the rapidly changing landscape of sustainable practices, may explain the lack of extensive material. Currie expresses hope that her new book, 'Building Green Software', will inspire further exploration and authorship in this essential area.
Understanding Carbon’s Role in Software Development
The conversation delves into why the book focuses on carbon as a critical greenhouse gas, highlighting the impact software engineers can have on day-to-day operations. Unlike methane, which has immediate effects but is easier to mitigate, carbon dioxide persists longer and is linked to electricity use, representing a more pressing concern for engineers. The book aims to foster awareness among software professionals about their potential to influence carbon emissions positively through their work. This focus on carbon reflects an objective to make sustainable choices measurable and actionable within the realm of software engineering.
Energy Proportionality and Efficiency in Tech
A key principle discussed is energy proportionality, which illustrates how computer power utilization efficiency varies significantly based on operational usage. Currie emphasizes that machines often consume power disproportionately when they are utilized below 50%, leading to significant energy waste. This concept stresses the need for software engineers to be mindful of operational efficiency, especially in cloud environments where over-provisioning tends to occur. The podcast also introduces the idea of 'light switch ops', advocating for the ability to turn off unused servers as a step toward improving energy efficiency.
Resilience and the Energy Transition
The dialogue transitions to the relationship between the internet's inherent resilience and the changing dynamics of electrical grids as we move towards renewable energy sources. Unlike fossil fuels, which provide reliable energy, renewables can be unpredictable, necessitating a mindset shift among consumers and businesses alike. Currie draws parallels between decentralized internet systems and future energy systems, where flexibility and adaptability will become crucial. This resilience-focused approach aims to prepare industries for variability in power supply while encouraging creative solutions to manage energy consumption efficiently.
Anne Currie, a leading expert in sustainable tech and part of the Green Software Foundation, discusses practical steps for building resilient, sustainable software in an episode of The New Stack Makers. With 30 years of experience, Currie co-authored Building Green Software, emphasizing the tech industry's role in the energy transition. She highlights the complexity of adapting technology to renewable energy, involving extensive research and debunking misinformation. Currie discusses the importance of energy proportionality—the idea that increased utilization improves a computer's energy efficiency—and how this concept aligns with modern DevOps practices that reduce carbon emissions while enhancing speed, cost efficiency, and security.
Currie also emphasizes architecting systems to operate on renewable power and draws parallels between managing variable grid power and internet bandwidth. Using examples like video conferencing, she illustrates how software can adapt to fluctuating resources. The episode also touches on potential pitfalls like greenwashing and the challenges in accurately naming concepts like energy proportionality.
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