8. Design for greener architecture, data and security
Greener approaches to architecture, data and security help maximise efficiency and reduce waste.
The actions under this principle can generally be applied to on-premise systems as well as data centres in the 'cloud'.
Likely lead roles
Technical architect, solution architect, network architect, data architect, security architect, platform team
Actions
8a. Use data to inform technology choices from the start
8b. Use sustainable design patterns
8c. Build and reuse common components
8d. Optimise your cloud computing service model
8e. Optimise workloads
8f. Optimise network architecture for efficient scale
8g. Identify data to be collected
8h. Determine data storage and management practices
8i. Consider security controls
Environmental benefits
Efficiency
Carbon Awareness
Further reading
The Green Software Foundation have developed a set of patterns and techniques to reduce the environmental impacts of digital services. These are broken down by ‘web’ and ‘cloud’.
The W3C’s draft Web Sustainability Guidelines include comprehensive recommendations for reducing the environmental impacts of websites and digital products. Guidance comes under the following categories: user experience design, web development, hosting and infrastructure and business and product management considerations.
The Handbook of Sustainable Design of Digital Services, known as GR491, was created in France by the ‘Institute for Sustainable IT’. It covers a range of recommendations for delivering digital services with reduced environmental footprints.