The world has been working with technology for quite some time. As we advance, we get more used to living among technological tools that make our life easier; these have made crucial changes in modern living for good and bad. For good, it has given us the opportunity for a better life and more productive businesses, but it also has had harmful consequences for the environment.
The increase in the daily-generated data from all the devices on the planet is a big problem we are facing in the present and has become very alarming for the future. Also, there are issues in the technology industry to handle, and therefore, in all industries, since they all operate with technology.
Increased spending on technology and sustainability issues makes it difficult for environmental-friendly improvements in any sector, such as agriculture, education, health, transportation, etc. That is why we need to start changing now by adopting sustainable computing.
Governments, businesses, and industries need to compromise to make a global change in the approach and usage of technology, as it affects global growth. We must fix the environmental issues we have already generated, foremostly with carbon emissions, and ensure good use of any technological development from now on.
It is the practice of minimizing environmental impact in how computer chips, hardware, software, and resources are designed and used. Sustainable computing is also called Sustainable IT, green IT, or green computing.
As we know, energy use today has increased rapidly, and more so since the pandemic. It is one of the most severe causes of global warming. To have a better understanding of sustainable computing, let's look at some significant points in Sustainable Information Technology history:
In 1992, The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) launched Energy Star. This program identifies consumer electronics that follow the standards in energy efficiency. Providing information about the energy consumption of devices and products; for example, Energy Star created the sleep/stand-by mode for computers, for when it is on but not being used.
Later, the Top500 appeared. It is a project that has existed since 1933. Its purpose is to provide, twice a year, an updated rank of the fastest computer systems and their capability to solve and analyze high amounts of data used today. The measure used for the ranking is the best Linpack benchmark performance achieved (the six months before). The Linpack benchmark is determined by running a computer program and measuring how it solves a dense system of linear equations.
Then, in 2005, the Green Electronic Council (GEC) was founded. It is a non-profit organization that influences the power of purchases to create a world where only sustainable computing is bought and sold; that provides the Environmental Assessment Tool, a registry of systems and their energy-efficiency levels; and the EPEAT ecolabel, a resource to demonstrate products conform to the highest standards of sustainability.
In 2006, Green Computing Benchmark called Green500 was created, a rank list of the most environmentally-friendly supercomputers in the world. It is measured by the performance on the Linpack Benchmark too.
As we mentioned, green computing is the responsible and eco-friendly use of computers and their resources to minimize the harmful technological impact on the environment. The techniques involving this practice are the following:
It is the process of being sustainable from the start. Manufacture systems based on a sustainable design, with components that do not use harmful chemicals and elements that meet strict energy-efficiency standards certified by environmental organizations.
It is the practice of using computers in the most energy-efficient way possible. For example, the "undervolting" process (when a CPU can switch off components after a period of inactivity) for distributing energy as a computer or device needs; reduces resource consumption.
It is how to do responsible disposal, ensuring that technological products get recycled into new products.
The use of sustainable decisions during the design process to improve sustainable attributes.
Everywhere energy is used is where we can adopt sustainable computing. For example, using the process of undervolting, which allows you to switch off computer processors and components to reduce energy consumption. This gives a longer life to the batteries because of the energy use reduction, and it also reduces the heat generated to function faster for a longer time.
The recycling problem needs to be handled from design using organic materials and creating elements for reusing. Also, practicing the recycling of high-end hardware in low-end markets with affordable prices, allowing the reuse of several products and reducing waste. Or how used chips could be reused into IoT chips, designing them to use energy effectively and to get reconfigured. It is important to partner with and support IT companies that are in pursuit of creating sustainable computing.
Data centers (the cloud) are one of the primary challenges to handle to reduce the carbon footprint that they emit. This can be achieved by adopting a sustainable system like a decentralized model, which allows effective energy use, sharing the resources from all the connected devices while reducing energy consumption and costs to the company.
Another way to benefit from green IT is the use of computer virtualization. The system administrator can combine several systems into a virtual machine on a single robust system; this computer virtualization can reduce power consumption by unplugging the original hardware.
Everyone benefits from embracing sustainable computing because its positive impact is global. If countries and industries adopt an environment-friendly model, the ultimate profit would be to lower the carbon footprint emissions; consequently, we would all lower the effect of the carbon footprint on the planet.
The ones who might benefit the most from green computing are businesses, industries, and governments, thus the opportunity to work more efficiently. They can significantly change the data centers, servers, and data storage by optimizing heating, ventilation, and cooling to reduce energy consumption and cost savings.
As we already mentioned, the technology industry can make significant changes by thinking about the usage, reuse, and disposal of IT products and using resources to design them in an environmentally friendly, efficient, and affordable way.
A decentralized system is contrary to the cloud (centralized system), meaning it is a system where control and management run through all the users connected to the network. This type of architecture is cost-efficient, secure, and resilient to failure due to its design; and can be used in any business, not just for financial transactions.
Decentralization is done thanks to blockchain technology, a system created based on several computers, sensors, or devices (called nodes) connected, all helping to operate the system. Users don't need to identify themselves to interact in the network, making it easier and safe to work in zero-trust environments.
The main benefits of a decentralized system are the following:
It gives control to all the users in the network. By not having a central server, you don't need to rely your trust on a third party, making fairer the control and management of the information
There are no single points of failure because the nodes connected are independent of each other, making it safer. If several nodes stop working, the other ones keep the network functioning.
You get all resources distributed among the nodes connected to the network. By not having a central server, as nodes get added, the resources grow, making the system easier to scale by sharing all the resources in the network.
It allows you to save on storage and bandwidth costs. By having a network with shared resources, there is no need to pay for a centralized server to send and store your data.
Eden is a decentralized and sustainable system. It runs distributed services with Online Private Gardens that execute DePos (decentralized pods) flexibly and securely.
Eden is an autonomous portal and secure virtual infrastructure. Based on a scalable infrastructure, you can easily add new devices as nodes, making it possible to contribute to the network resources. Over an intelligent mesh network, facilitating the computing process to happen where data is generated and used.
Eden uses quantum-safe tunnels, polymorphic encryption keys, and consensus blockchain to verify the data. Creates trusted private data gardens to secure it and allow users to work in zero-trust environments. Eden has an autonomous knowledge-based AI that creates service manifests with rules, policies, and logic for computing and storage coordination.
The benefits Eden provides are the following:
Security
Automation
Flexible Approach
Eden gives solutions to meet your organization's needs. Start your sustainable journey today; join us.
