In an interaction with Bimlesh Prasad, Correspondent at CIOTechoutlook magazine, Srini Koushik, Chief Technology Officer at Rackspace Technology  highlights the positive impact of cloud adoption on carbon reduction and stresses the importance of addressing cloud waste. He suggests aligning sustainability goals with cloud practices, emphasizes the value of metrics and collaboration, and sees carbon credits as a supportive tool for sustainability. Below are the excerpts from the exclusive interview –

Srini is a collaborative problem solver who excels in building high-performing teams. With a focus on innovation and data-driven insights, he drives meaningful business outcomes through product-centric IT, design thinking, and agile methodologies.
 

What is the equation between Cloud adoption and the reduction of carbon footprint? Is it a direct or an indirect outcome? Are there any metrics or examples to prove Cloud’s role in improving environmental sustainability?

Organisations today have a responsibility to work towards net zero. A commitment to eliminating emissions not only wins over customers but investors, as well and decarbonising IT operations can play a significant role in that.Cloud is already a cleaner alternative as it means less hardware running fewer workloads and reduced electricity consumption. Businesses can leverage this to drive more efficient innovation while doing their part for the environment. Through targeted changes, the organisation can quickly ramp up company-wide, responsible, and proactive use of cloud technologies to optimise resources without overspending or overuse.

However, the cloud also produces a lot of digital waste. This can be the case when servers are left running despite no one using them or powering network equipment not being utilised. There is also the issue of unnecessary data backups, combined with cooling costs for idle servers. This is where greener, more sustainable cloud computing comes in. Providing more computing for less carbon, it replaces reliance on fossil fuels and unnecessary wastage by optimising assets.

Does the widespread use of Cloud technology inadvertently contribute to sustainability challenges, considering factors like hardware demands, poly-cloud instances, Scope 3 emissions, and the significant costs of cloud waste?

It is a balancing act, and businesses need to juggle between consumption and the collective goal of protecting our planet. However, it is possible to align both. Through a holistic view that embeds sustainability into all aspects of the business, enterprises can gain a competitive advantage.

For example, building containerized applications using event-driven, serverless architectures can optimize demand consumption. Through infrastructure services provided in highly efficient green data centers from public and private cloud providers, the C-suite and IT leaders can drive better outcomes for the planet while ensuring the business is on the right path.

How do you manage and reduce cloud wastage, such as overprovisioning and tech debt, as your company's cloud usage grows to prevent resource inefficiency and increased risks?

The first port of call should be to raise organisational efficiencies and manage resources and operations in the cloud. This can be achieved by cutting the amount of time resources are left running idle when not being used. Simultaneously, applications, processes, and data workloads can be engineered and structured to run optimally on the cloud. This allows for well-architected applications to be implemented using cloud-native technologies, boosting scalability, and regulating consumption to serve business and sustainability objectives.

As far as IT is concerned, it's also a good idea to use human resources more efficiently, reduce energy usage, and manage processes better so cloud services can be provided more efficiently.

Are there any best practices or standards taking shape on Cloud Sustainability? Any comments on GreenOps, FinOps, workload calculators and PUE metrics?

Public cloud providers like Amazon and Microsoft have their cloud sustainability strategies and this is a good thing. Because, ultimately, what gets measured gets done. The climate imperative necessitates that businesses make changes, and companies need transparency to understand the impact of their architectural decisions. Just like they need to be able to estimate the cost of a solution, they need to be able to estimate its environmental impact. Cloud providers offer tools to calculate this, allowing the business to choose solution elements and project their environmental impact based on utilisation. Much like how FinOps offers cloud financial management, GreenOps delivers a multidimensional set of metrics - like power usage effectiveness (PUE) - that calculate the costs of consumption.

Can carbon credits be part of the Cloud industry? Would that help?

Carbon credits are an excellent way to help the pivot towards cloud sustainability. By integrating carbon credits into the cloud industry, organisations gain the impetus to mitigate the environmental effects that stem from cloud services. Public cloud providers like Google are also creating tools that measure and report carbon emissions related to cloud services. Leveraging cloud-native tools that are scalable and flexible also empowers this further. Doing so enables businesses to leverage the cloud and participate in carbon credit programs to support environmental initiatives and offset their carbon footprint.

However, organisations must remember that carbon credits are just one tool to be more sustainable. It should always be a complementary approach that needs to be pursued in tandem with efforts to cut emissions at the source.