3112: Sustainable IT: Balancing Performance and Environmental Responsibility

[00:00:04] How do we strike a balance between leveraging technology for progress and addressing the environmental impact?

[00:00:12] Well, this question is becoming increasingly critical as IT systems and AI applications drive innovation, while also contributing to global greenhouse gas emissions.

[00:00:25] So, today I'm recording this episode from the IT Press Tour in Malta and my conversation today is going to shine a light on the growing concern, the sustainability of digital technology.

[00:00:37] And my guest today, his name is Francois. He's a veteran of the IT industry with nearly 30 years of experience and has a deep passion for green IT.

[00:00:47] He has led data center operations across Europe, developed IT solutions for major enterprises.

[00:00:53] But now he serves as an ambassador for sustainable technology at a company called EasyVirt.

[00:01:00] His mission? Simply to help businesses reduce the environmental footprint of their IT operations without compromising their performance.

[00:01:09] So today I want to talk about sustainable IT and break down the hidden environmental costs

[00:01:15] from the energy intensive nature of AI models to the growing water usage of data centers.

[00:01:21] And also learn more about EasyVirt's innovative solutions and how they provide granular, real-time measurements

[00:01:28] to help organizations optimize their infrastructure, cut costs and meet their ESG goals.

[00:01:34] So whether you are an IT leader, a sustainability advocate or just simply curious about the future of green tech,

[00:01:41] this episode will hopefully leave you inspired and informed.

[00:01:46] So how can businesses rethink their digital strategies to not only improve efficiency, but also take their responsibility in safeguarding the planet?

[00:01:53] You're going to love this one.

[00:01:55] But enough from me.

[00:01:56] Let's get my guest on to talk about the world of sustainable IT.

[00:02:01] So welcome to the show.

[00:02:03] Can you tell everyone listening a little about who you are and what you do?

[00:02:07] Thank you, Neil.

[00:02:08] So my name is François Machasek.

[00:02:10] I have nearly 30 years experience in IT with a great experience in data center management.

[00:02:17] I began my career in Germany, in Hamburg by Bureau Veritas and was in charge of the IT for the Central European region.

[00:02:27] 10 countries.

[00:02:28] I spent eight years there.

[00:02:30] Then I took the responsibility of the EMEA data center of Bureau Veritas in Nantes for seven years.

[00:02:37] After managing a project of data center relocation for a network operator in France, I joined a managed service provider to take the lead of the hosted IT production of its clients based on free data centers.

[00:02:54] I spent there 13 years where I evolved to a product marketing manager position.

[00:03:02] I was in charge of developing offers for the outsourcing business unit.

[00:03:07] I've been really interested in green IT for four years now.

[00:03:13] And I became an ambassador of sustainable IT.

[00:03:16] I run the workshops Digital College and Climate Fresc.

[00:03:22] And I developed some sustainable IT consulting and support devices.

[00:03:28] As I needed to be 100% actor of sustainable IT, I joined EasyVirt in June 2024.

[00:03:37] EasyVirt is a French software editor, expert since 2011 in measuring and optimizing the environmental footprint of IT.

[00:03:48] I am so delighted and proud to be part of this team.

[00:03:51] Our mission, optimize IT, sustain the future.

[00:03:56] And we've met here in Malta for the IT press tour.

[00:04:00] And one of the things that stood out to me about your presentation I saw today was about sustainability in IT because digital technology is now a significant portion of global greenhouse gas emissions.

[00:04:12] And more recently, I'm hearing more about the environmental costs of AI.

[00:04:17] That's not just power and electricity, but auto water consumption too.

[00:04:21] So how are you at EasyVirt addressing the environmental challenges posed by the IT sector and this thirst for all things tech and AI that we have now?

[00:04:30] Yes, yes, you are right, Neil.

[00:04:33] I am used to say that the digital technology is as much an ally as a burden.

[00:04:38] Currently, digital technology represents about 4 to 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

[00:04:47] This is minimum twice as much as air transport emissions.

[00:04:52] We have no official current data since a few years.

[00:04:56] Even if digital technology is a real tool serving the energy transition, it remains particularly energy intensive and the source of greenhouse gas emissions.

[00:05:08] Digital is not immaterial, quite the contrary.

[00:05:12] Cloud computing is not immaterial.

[00:05:15] It is made of data centers, servers, networks.

[00:05:19] Digital GAG emissions could increase significantly if nothing is done to reduce their footprint.

[00:05:26] We speak about plus 60% by 2040.

[00:05:31] AI is making things worse.

[00:05:35] The electricity consumption of DC will double between 2022 and 2026 worldwide.

[00:05:43] And Gartner predicts that by 2027, 40% of data centers dedicated to AI will be affected by energy supply problems.

[00:05:55] We are heading for the world.

[00:05:58] My message is not to get rid of digital technology, which brings real benefits, but to think about how you use digital technology and how you can optimize your usage.

[00:06:11] And this is our DNA by IsiWirt.

[00:06:14] Since its creation in 2011, IsiWirt's mission is to reduce the negative environmental impacts caused by digital services in France and abroad.

[00:06:26] We used to say that we want to save the world.

[00:06:30] So this can sound funny, but do you know about the legend of the hummingbird and Pierre Rabi?

[00:06:39] It teaches us that while changing our little habits may seem trivial, it's the sum of all our little actions that makes a difference.

[00:06:50] And this year, we evolved our baseline by IsiWirt towards Optimize IT, Sustain the Future.

[00:06:59] How to combine digital performance and respect for the environment for a sustainable future.

[00:07:06] This mission is based on solid convictions.

[00:07:10] We are convinced that the real measurement is necessary to manage actions and see the results of these actions,

[00:07:20] to understand uses and also to have adjusted prerequisites.

[00:07:24] That's why our solutions provide real measurements with a fine granularity, one measurement every minute.

[00:07:32] Other solutions on the market use abacuses, averages of electrical consumption of equipment.

[00:07:39] I compare with my electric meter at home.

[00:07:43] If I use a radiator less, I will see it on my consumption the next day.

[00:07:49] That's the same with our solutions.

[00:07:51] If I use abacuses, then I won't be able to track the changes.

[00:07:56] Moreover, it is necessary to provide innovative solutions to information system teams that must be in line with the numerous constraints linked to the highest level of service, security, low availability of teams and so on.

[00:08:14] We have been working with the IT production teams for more than 13 years and we know very well their business, their needs and their constraints.

[00:08:24] Our playground is information systems infrastructure, both on premise and in the cloud.

[00:08:31] Our challenges to measure, to optimize, to manage.

[00:08:35] We propose three solutions, DC scope, DC net scope and CO2 scope.

[00:08:40] They deliver to our client three main benefits, generate savings, master the information system and reduce the environmental footprint.

[00:08:51] DC scope is an intuitive and non intrusive solution for the management, optimization, performance, cost and capacity planning analysis of virtualized on premise and cloud infrastructures.

[00:09:02] DC net scope is an intuitive and non intrusive solution for traffic monitoring and analysis network mapping of virtualized infrastructure.

[00:09:11] CO2 scope is an IT carbon measurement platform that supports your IT sustainability strategy by implementing solutions dedicated to measuring, analyzing and reducing the carbon footprint of your virtualized and physical IT services on premise and cloud.

[00:09:36] CO2.

[00:09:38] request actually consumes three liters of water so that gives you some kind of indication

[00:09:43] on the how this problem is going to increase and there's a lot of business leaders and IT directors

[00:09:49] that they see the regulations coming in place they know what their responsibilities are so

[00:09:54] knowing where to start and what to do can be quite daunting and as at EasyVirt you emphasize this

[00:10:00] intuitive effective solution tailored to your client's needs but can you explain how your

[00:10:05] solution differs from maybe other tools that we might see out there from VMware solution and also

[00:10:11] what sets you apart in the green IT market because there's a lot out there isn't there at the moment

[00:10:16] yes yes our solutions are not SaaS based it's simple simply a virtual machine that is installed

[00:10:24] in the client information system so this is more secure and allow us to work with some sensible and

[00:10:30] defense actors the client verbal team was installed within 15 minutes our solutions are not intrusive

[00:10:37] as they are agentless this is a real advantage for IT production teams that do not like to touch a well

[00:10:45] running system they are simple to use generally two hours training are enough for a client to be

[00:10:51] autonomous our solutions are based on continuous and real measurement with a very fine granularity up to

[00:10:59] the minute we industrialized the measure our dedicated optimization algorithm proposed detailed and more

[00:11:07] powerful optimization levers than some other solutions one of our client did the comparison between EasyVirt and VMware

[00:11:16] our optimizations our optimizations went further and the replication did not give rise to any incidents

[00:11:23] often our client give us the following feedback first conclusive information 48 hours after the installation at least

[00:11:33] our proximity to the infrastructure professions allow us to provide dashboards adapted to for both management and technical teams

[00:11:41] I will add at least an important differentiator we are agnostic about software editors and hardware manufacturer solutions

[00:11:50] this is all the more important since Broadcom's acquisition of VMware

[00:11:55] and you mentioned in your presentation today and just a few moments ago that this importance of real-time fine granularity measurements and I think the belts and braces approach of any IT has always been you can only improve what you measure so can you think about the real-time fine granularity measurements and I think the belts and braces approach of any IT has always been you can only improve what you measure

[00:12:11] can you tell me a bit more about easy solutions how you measure and manage their carbon footprint effectively and the kind of things that you do measure to make that happen because it's all about the metrics isn't it?

[00:12:24] Yeah yeah this carbon footprint of an equipment is based on the direct energy electrical consumption and the embodied energy the footprint of the mineral extraction manufacturing and end of life of the equipment

[00:12:38] concerning the direct energy we will measure the real electrical consumption of the physical equipment using API when it makes sense

[00:12:48] concerning the cloud intensity footprints as the data from hyperscalers is not calculated in the same way and remains opaque let's say

[00:12:58] we recalculate it using the cloud carbon footprint

[00:13:02] in this way we bring the data from the cloud providers back into line this makes it possible to compare them factually for example to simulate move to cloud projects

[00:13:15] and of course any big tech project now no matter what it is no matter how great that solution is it's going to become the increasing scrutiny for the ROI that question that we hear more and more about so

[00:13:27] can you provide any examples or maybe even use cases where your clients have seen immediate or long-term financial and environmental benefits because they're going to be asking that question right from the offset

[00:13:40] yeah we provide savings in euro as infrastructure is optimized savings in time administrator teams but also managers we help to make decisions more reliable and we help to be compliant to the environmental regulations

[00:13:55] concerning virtualization we have some key figures provided by our clients 80% oversized VM

[00:14:04] 25 to 5 to 10% useless VM 25% densification without risk one client in a friend social housing sector had a gain of 10% on CPU and RAM after a few months running DC scope

[00:14:18] even the users escalated a significant performance gain another from health sector got a considerable time savings for modeling the budget

[00:14:28] from 10 days to 2 days a client from the banking insurance sector could shut down 2 ESX in just a few weeks which represents about 30k euro per year they follow the resizing recommendation with 0 incident

[00:14:46] plus they have saved time in monitoring and optimizing installations finally I would mention a managed service provider customer committed to sustainability with dozens of

[00:14:58] thousands of ESX servers and several thousands VM we propose services he propose services to its clients to optimize their infrastructure in order to save money and reduce their carbon footprint for a client with an average of 514

[00:15:17] 10.0 VM implementing 50% only of the recommendations on cpu and ram the gains are about 50k euro annual savings 90 vcpu and 400 giga ram this is interesting because doing this this managed service provider reduces a part of its revenue but it's a winning bet to win the trust of customers which is a huge advantage in building a

[00:15:47] loyalty and it replaces this reduction by expertise services and when you do green ops you are doing fine ops you are doing something for the environment

[00:15:58] and I'm glad you mentioned green ops there because one of the other things that stood out from your presentation is how you integrate green ops and fin ops principles to optimize IT resources but I'm curious how do these frameworks actually work together and how do they reduce costs and environmental impacts collect

[00:16:17] effectively and simultaneously yes green ops provides the complementary way of optimizing IT infrastructure

[00:16:25] green ops and fin ops have this common goal of optimizing resources less usage translates into both lower costs and a reduced environmental impact our products are designed to provide value to organizations in three dimensions first we optimize the IT infrastructure in this dimension we optimize the IT infrastructure in this dimension we are designed to provide value to organizations in 3 dimensions

[00:16:47] Our objective is to reduce the amount of IT resources being used without compromising the performance of the infrastructure.

[00:16:54] This is one of the main concerns of IT teams.

[00:16:57] Secondly, we focus on people.

[00:17:00] For this dimension, our objective is to centralize the information about the infrastructure

[00:17:05] and being able to communicate and streamline the decision-making process.

[00:17:11] Our client needs to make the right decision.

[00:17:15] And finally, and our main objective, is to reduce the environmental footprint of information systems and applications.

[00:17:24] To do this, we provide the appropriate metrics and analysis of carbon emissions in the infrastructure,

[00:17:31] as well as the recommendations to reduce the carbon footprint.

[00:17:35] As mentioned before, the objective is to be able to communicate about these reductions,

[00:17:40] so we also provide with tools that allow to track the evolutions and changes.

[00:17:47] And I think any enterprise of any size at the moment are all tackling that same problem

[00:17:51] where client infrastructures are increasingly hybrid.

[00:17:55] There's public cloud, on-prem, private cloud, and so many other different unique solutions.

[00:18:00] So how does your suite of solutions help organizations navigate some of these complexities,

[00:18:05] whether it be on-premise or cloud environments or anything in between?

[00:18:10] That's a good question.

[00:18:11] Our solutions provide an industrialized measure.

[00:18:14] We develop connectors in line with our customers' needs in order to address all parameters of the information system.

[00:18:21] We are able to help them on the physical devices, servers, storage, network, and virtual assets,

[00:18:27] virtual machines, cloud compute instances, containers, and so on.

[00:18:32] The way we recalculate the footprint of client instances allow our client to have a reporting agnostic from the cloud service provider.

[00:18:42] Finally, I would insist on the fact that our tools are fully interoperable with API.

[00:18:48] So we work with some other third-part CSR tools, editors,

[00:18:54] which retrieve data from our measurements and calculations on the information system perimeter

[00:18:59] and integrate them into a wider corporate vision.

[00:19:04] For the customer, the advantage is that the tangible data supplied by EasyVirt

[00:19:08] can be taken into account within their highest perimeter.

[00:19:13] Another thing that I think every business leader is grappling with at the moment

[00:19:16] is the tightening regulations around everything from ESG to AI.

[00:19:21] So with all these regulations, how are you assisting organizations in meeting these compliance requirements

[00:19:28] and also providing more accurate, actionable data for reporting?

[00:19:32] Again, a question you must be getting a lot, right?

[00:19:34] The philosophy of the CSRD is to provide a recurring measurement of its emissions,

[00:19:41] to build an action plan to reduce them,

[00:19:43] and to be able to report on the impact of the actions implemented.

[00:19:46] This is typically the principle of continuous improvement and the spirit of EasyVirt.

[00:19:53] Through our continuous and real measurements,

[00:19:56] we are able to provide the impacts of the actions implemented throughout the year, project after project.

[00:20:03] Our customers save time because the annual information system emissions balance

[00:20:09] is calculated in our solutions, and all the impacts of the actions taken are also calculated automatically.

[00:20:17] Now, before you came on the podcast today, I did go out and have a little search on Google

[00:20:22] to find out a little bit more about you and the kind of user feedback

[00:20:25] and what people are saying about you.

[00:20:27] One of the things that stood out quickly was your clients rate you highly.

[00:20:30] I think you've got a recommendation score of something like 9.2 out of 10,

[00:20:34] which is not something I see that often in the tech industry,

[00:20:37] especially when researching guests.

[00:20:39] So I've got to ask, from your point of view,

[00:20:40] what aspects of EasyVirt's offerings and support contribute to that exceptional feedback?

[00:20:46] Is it that you do things differently, you offer something unique, or is it something else?

[00:20:51] This is our DNA, maybe.

[00:20:54] Concerning the offering, they highlight the ease of the installation and use,

[00:20:59] the power of our optimization algorithms,

[00:21:02] and the speed with which convincing results can be obtained.

[00:21:06] On a financial point of view, they highlight the very reasonable TCO compared to other market tools.

[00:21:14] In terms of support and assistance, they're all without exceptions,

[00:21:19] emphasizes the availability, the responsiveness, and the professionalism of our teams.

[00:21:25] This is our DNA.

[00:21:27] We are really attentive to their needs.

[00:21:29] And we are at that magical time of year.

[00:21:32] We're just weeks away from a brand new year.

[00:21:34] So looking ahead to 2025, and dare I say beyond,

[00:21:38] what other key developments are you focusing on at EasyVirt?

[00:21:42] What's next for you guys?

[00:21:43] And how are these new initiatives aligning with that overall mission

[00:21:47] of exactly where we started as we come full circle, sustainable IT?

[00:21:51] We are compatible with most of used hypervisors by our clients,

[00:21:57] VMware, Proxmox, Nutanix, AHV, and we work to integrate XCPNG.

[00:22:02] Concerning the containers, we integrated Kubernetes and platform OpenShift and Tanzu.

[00:22:09] We developed a CO2 scope manager, which allowed to communicate with several instances of CO2 scope

[00:22:16] and aggregates all their data to give a high-level vision of the footprint.

[00:22:21] If we speak about AI, an important topic, we work on the consumption measure of GPU and AI models

[00:22:30] in collaboration with partners and ADEM, the French Environmental Agency.

[00:22:36] In order to go further on the environmental impact of IT, and not just carbon,

[00:22:42] our solutions will be multi-criteria next year.

[00:22:46] They will take into account water use, etrophication, minerals and metal use, and so on.

[00:22:53] To finish, I can give you a scoop.

[00:22:56] We just published our new tool.

[00:22:58] It is free available on our website.

[00:23:01] The name is Eclio, Cloud Pricing and Environmental Impact Solution.

[00:23:07] Eclio is an innovative comparison and simulation tool designed to provide you with detailed insights

[00:23:13] into the price and carbon emissions of virtual machines offered by major cloud providers

[00:23:19] such as AWS, GCP, Azure.

[00:23:22] It will allow you to evaluate and compare costs as well as environmental impacts of different options,

[00:23:30] helping you make informed decisions when migrating your on-premise infrastructure to the public cloud.

[00:23:37] And I think in your presentation, you called it the kayak of cloud providers.

[00:23:42] Yes.

[00:23:43] That's really what I find out.

[00:23:44] I think it was a great line.

[00:23:45] And for anyone listening wanting to find out more information about anything we talked about today,

[00:23:51] there's obviously got a lot of different channels, a lot of things out there.

[00:23:54] There's an ROI calculator as well.

[00:23:56] What's the best starting point for everything EasyVirt?

[00:23:59] The best is to go to our website, easyvirt.com, where you will access to a lot of free resources.

[00:24:06] You will access to the free download of our solutions, free trial for one month,

[00:24:11] to the download of our white paper with Adam, to our return of investment calculators, and so on and so on.

[00:24:17] Eclio is available under cloudpricing.easyvirt.com.

[00:24:21] At least you will find resources on our YouTube channel, youtube.com slash at easyvirt.

[00:24:29] I'll add links to everything so people can find you nice and easy and explore this a little bit more closely.

[00:24:35] I think we've spoken a lot around AI this year, predictably.

[00:24:39] Also ESG scores and the requirements about that.

[00:24:41] But I think we seldom talk about IT sustainability.

[00:24:45] So thank you so much for shining a light on this today.

[00:24:47] Really appreciate your time.

[00:24:48] Thank you very much, Neil.

[00:24:50] As Francois explained, I think technology is both a tool for progress and a challenge for sustainability.

[00:24:56] But EasyVirt's approach to optimising IT infrastructure and reducing environmental impacts,

[00:25:03] it offers a glimpse of what's possible when innovation is paired with responsibility

[00:25:09] and sustainable IT becomes a real possibility.

[00:25:12] Whether it be granular energy measurements or the integration of green ops and thin ops principles,

[00:25:19] my guest today has shown how small, calculated steps can lead to significant results.

[00:25:26] But of course this is just the beginning.

[00:25:28] As regulations tighten and businesses face increasing scrutiny with increasing regulation,

[00:25:33] the need for sustainable IT practices will only become more pressing.

[00:25:38] But what are your thoughts on the intersection of technology and sustainability?

[00:25:44] Have you considered how IT operations in your organisation can become more environmentally conscious?

[00:25:52] As always, let me know.

[00:25:53] Let's keep this conversation going.

[00:25:55] Email me, techblogwriteroutlook.com, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, just at me or C. Hughes.

[00:26:01] Let me know your thoughts and I'll be back again tomorrow and we'll explore another topic together.

[00:26:06] But that's it for today.

[00:26:07] Take care.

[00:26:08] Thank you for listening.

[00:26:09] And I'll speak with you all again tomorrow.

[00:26:11] Bye for now.

[00:26:12] Bye for now.

[00:26:12] Bye for now.

[00:26:17] Bye for now.