A Case for Sustainability and Environment Friendliness in Software Development and Architecture Decisions by Taking Energy-Efficient Design Decisions

TL;DR

This paper highlights the importance of incorporating energy-efficient design decisions in software development to reduce overall IT energy consumption and promote sustainability.

Contribution

It introduces a framework for quantifying energy efficiency gains in software based on common development and architectural decisions.

Findings

Potential for significant energy savings through software choices

Energy efficiency is underutilized as a performance criterion

Software development decisions can impact overall energy consumption

Abstract

IT power usage is a significant concern. Data center energy consumption is estimated to account for 1% to 1.5% of all energy consumption worldwide. Hardware designers, data center designers, and other members of the IT community have been working to improve energy efficiency across many parts of the IT infrastructure; however, little attention has been paid to the energy efficiency of software components. Indeed, energy efficiency is currently not a common performance criteria for software. In this work, we attempt to quantify the potential for gains in energy efficiency in software, based on a set of examples drawn from common, everyday decisions made by software developers and enterprise architects. Our results show that there is potential for significant energy savings through energy-conscious choices at software development and selection time, making the software and IT artifact sustainable and environment friendly.