US-12626208-B2 - Analysis of potential for reduction of enterprise carbon footprint profile

US12626208B2US 12626208 B2US12626208 B2US 12626208B2US-12626208-B2

Abstract

The described technology is generally directed towards reducing the carbon footprint arising from a client's operational workloads performed at a data center. Various embodiments are presented to enable assessment of the client's requirements regarding the workloads performed on digital data stored at one or more data centers. Based thereon, a determination can be made regarding improving the hosting and operation of the workloads to reduce the carbon footprint. The carbon footprint can be reduced based on energy supply to the data center (e.g., fossil fuel versus green energy sources), utilizing newer generation data servers versus older, lower capacity, inefficient data servers, pooling workloads onto a single moderate to high efficiency server, and the like. The determination to reduce the carbon footprint can be performed locally within a data center or globally across a community of data centers.

Inventors

Pushkala Iyer
Lori Lynn Matthews
Rekha Poosala

Assignees

DELL PRODUCTS L.P.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20221021

Claims (20)

1 . A first computing system, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising: receiving, by the first computing system: from first equipment associated with a first energy provider, first environmental impact digital data representative of a first environmental impact associated with a first option available to perform a computing operation with respect to client data at a second computing system, wherein the first option is representative of the first equipment associated with the first energy provider being configured to power the second computing system, wherein first energy provided by the first equipment associated with the first energy provider comprises a first portion of energy comprising a first ratio of green energy with respect to fossil-fuel derived energy, and wherein a first percentage of green energy represented by the first ratio is a first non-zero amount, and from second equipment associated with a second energy provider, second environmental impact digital data representative of a second environmental impact associated with a second option available to perform a computing operation with respect to the client data, wherein the second option is representative of the second equipment associated with the second energy provider being configured to power the second computing system, wherein second energy provided by the second equipment associated with the second energy provider comprises a second portion of energy comprising a second ratio of green energy with respect to fossil-fuel derived energy, wherein a second percentage of green energy represented by the second ratio is a second non-zero amount, and wherein the first ratio and second ratio are different; comparing the first environmental impact digital data with the second environmental impact digital data; based on a result of the comparing indicating that the first option has a lower carbon footprint than the second option, generating an instruction to implement the first option to power the second computing system and to further adjust operation of at least one server located at the second computing system to operate in accordance with power available with implementing the first option; and transmitting the instruction to the second computing system, as a result of which: at least some of the first energy is provided by the first equipment associated with the first energy provider for consumption at the second computing system, and the second computing system operates with a lower carbon footprint than achievable with the second energy provided by the second energy provider at the second computing system without the at least some of the first energy.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the first environmental impact digital data is an energy cost of a first equipment available at the second computing system to perform at least one of store the client data or execute a workload utilizing the client data, and the second environmental impact digital data is an energy cost of the second computing system to perform at least one of store the client data or execute the workload utilizing the client data.
3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the first environmental impact digital data is a carbon footprint from implementation of the first option and the second environmental impact digital data is a carbon footprint from implementation of the second option.
4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise presenting a report detailing a first carbon footprint resulting from the selection of the first option to perform at least one of store the client data or execute a workload utilizing the client data and a second carbon footprint resulting from second option to perform at least one of store the client data or execute a workload utilizing the client data.
5 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the operations further comprise: generating a usage history of the client data; and based on a usage history of the client data, predicting a future use of the client data to facilitate a future selection of the first option to store the client data or the second option to store the client data.
6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is a cloud-based analytics console.
7 . A method, comprising: receiving, by a device comprising at least one processor located at a first computing system: from first equipment associated with a first energy provider, first environmental impact digital data of a first option available to process a client data workload at a second computing system, wherein the first option is representative of the first equipment associated with the first energy provider being configured to power the second computing system, wherein first energy provided by the first equipment associated with the first energy provider comprises a first ratio of green energy and fossil-fuel derived energy, wherein a first percentage of green energy represented by the first ratio is a first non-zero amount, and wherein the client data has a digital format, and from second equipment associated with a second energy provider, second environmental impact digital data of a second option available to process the client data workload at the second computing system, wherein the second option is representative of the second equipment associated with the second energy provider being configured to power the second computing system, wherein second energy provided by the second equipment associated with the second energy provider comprises a second ratio of green energy and fossil-fuel derived energy, wherein a second percentage of green energy in the second ratio is a second non-zero amount, and wherein the first energy provider and the second energy provider are disparate; in response to the receiving, comparing, by the first computing system, the first environmental impact digital data and the second environmental impact digital data with a defined energy requirement; and in response to determining that the first environmental impact digital data has a lower carbon footprint than the second environmental impact digital data and satisfies the defined energy requirement, instructing the second computing system to utilize the first energy provider to provision at least some of the first energy to power the second computing system to facilitate operation of the second computing system in accordance with the defined energy requirement, or in response to determining that the second environmental impact digital data has a lower carbon footprint than the first environmental impact digital data and satisfies the defined energy requirement, instructing the second computing system to utilize the second energy provider to provision at least some of the second energy, without provisioning the at least some of the first energy, to power the second computing system to facilitate operation of the second computing system in accordance with the defined energy requirement, and wherein the instruction further comprises adjust operation of at least one server located at the second computing system to operate in accordance with power available when utilizing the second energy provider to provision at least some of the second energy to power the second computing system.
8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising generating a report detailing a reduction in carbon footprint generated by utilizing the first option instead of the second option.
9 . A non-transitory machine-readable medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor located at a first computing system, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising: receiving first energy data from first equipment associated with a first energy provider configured to power a second computing system, wherein the first energy data comprises a first ratio of green energy to fossil-fuel derived energy or of fossil-fuel derived energy to green energy, and wherein a first percentage of green energy in the first ratio is a first non-zero amount; determining, from the first energy data, first environmental impact data representative of a first impact from utilizing first energy from the first energy provider to process a client data workload at the second computing system, wherein the client data is digital data; receiving second energy data from second equipment associated with a second energy provider configured to power the second computing system, wherein the second energy data comprises a second ratio of green energy to fossil-fuel derived energy or of fossil-fuel derived energy to green energy, and wherein a second percentage of green energy in the second ratio is a second non-zero amount; determining, from the second energy data, second environmental impact data representative of a second impact from utilizing second energy from the second energy provider to process the client data workload at the second computing system; comparing the first environmental impact data and the second environmental impact data with a defined energy requirement; in response to determining that the first environmental impact data has a lower carbon footprint than the second environmental impact data and satisfies the defined energy requirement, instructing the second computing equipment to utilize the first energy provider to provision energy to power the second computing system to facilitate operation of the second computing system in accordance with the defined energy requirement, or in response to determining that the second environmental impact data has a lower carbon footprint than the second environmental impact data and satisfies the defined energy requirement, instructing the second computing equipment to utilize the second energy provider to provision energy to power the second computing system to facilitate operation of the second computing system in accordance with the defined energy requirement; and further instructing at least one server operating at the second computing equipment to adjust operation of the at least one server to operate in accordance with energy available when utilizing the second energy provider to provision at least some of the energy to power the second computing equipment.
10 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9 , the operations further comprising generating and presenting a report detailing a reduction in an environmental impact of processing the client data workload based on selection of the first option or the second option.
11 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the first environmental impact data is a first carbon footprint generated by first equipment available to process the client data workload, and the second environmental impact data is a second carbon footprint generated by second equipment available to process the client data workload.
12 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the computing operation is at least one of storing the client data on a server device located at the second computing system or executing a workload utilizing the client data on the server device located at the second computing system.
13 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise: outputting the first environmental impact digital data and the second environmental impact digital data via a user interface of the second computing system; and receiving an input via the user interface, wherein the input is one of an indication of a first selection of the first option, causing the first option to be implemented to perform the computing operation with respect to the data, or based on the input data comprising the indication of a second selection of the second option, causing the second option to be implemented to perform the computing operation with respect to data.
14 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the first computing system is a cloud-based analytics console.
15 . The method of claim 7 , wherein processing of the client data workload is at least one of storing the client data on a server device located at the second computing system or executing a workload utilizing the client data on the server device located at the second computing system.
16 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the operations further comprise: generating a usage history of the client data; and based on a usage history of the client data, predicting a future use of the client data to facilitate a future selection of the first option to store the client data or the second option to store the client data.
17 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the energy requirement is defined by one of a government entity, a non-profit entity, or a private entity.
18 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein processing of the client data workload is at least one of storing the client data on a server device located at the second computing system or executing a workload utilizing the client data on the server device located at the second computing system.
19 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprising: generating a usage history of the client data; and based on a usage history of the client data, predicting a future use of the client data to facilitate a future selection of the first option to store the client data or the second option to store the client data.
20 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the energy requirement is defined by one of a government entity, a non-profit entity, or a private entity.

Description

BACKGROUND “Carbon footprint” is a term commonly used to express a total amount of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), etc.) generated by human activity. Further, the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases being emitted by an organization or an activity is an important aspect of the “ecological footprint” of an operation and/or an activity. The impact of CO2 generated during operation of data centers is being factored into the design, location, and operation of the data centers, particularly in view of local, national, international regulations and recommendations, in conjunction with societal pressures. The greater the reduction in the carbon footprint resulting from an organization's operations, the more likely the organization will be perceived by the public, governmental entities, etc., as to be making significant steps towards operational sustainability and playing their part in the reduction of global warming. The standardized unit for measure for climate change-centric sustainability goals and targets is metric tons of CO2 (MT CO2). The measure is not limited only to CO2, but CO2 equivalents (CO2e or CO2-eq) can be utilized to determine impact of other greenhouse gases such as CH4, N2O, CFCs, PFCs, etc. For example, one metric ton of CH4 has a warming effect equivalent to ˜25 times that of CO2, hence, the global warming potential of 1MT CH4 has a 25MT CO2 e (a ratio of 25:1). Similarly, 1MT N2O equates to 298MT CO2 e. Such an approach enables the carbon footprint of a variety of different greenhouse gases to be expressed as a single number. The above-described background is merely intended to provide a contextual overview of some current issues and is not intended to be exhaustive. Other contextual information may become further apparent upon review of the following detailed description. SUMMARY The following presents a simplified summary of the disclosed subject matter to provide a basic understanding of one or more of the various embodiments described herein. This summary is not an extensive overview of the various embodiments. It is intended neither to identify key or critical elements of the various embodiments nor to delineate the scope of the various embodiments. The sole purpose of the Summary is to present some concepts of the disclosure in a streamlined form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later. In one or more embodiments described herein, systems, devices, computer-implemented methods, methods, apparatus and/or computer program products are presented to facilitate a reduction in the carbon footprint resulting from one or more data center operations pertaining to at least one of storing client data on at least one data server or executing a workload on the client data. According to one or more embodiments, a system can be utilized, wherein the system comprises at least one processor, and a memory coupled to the at least one processor and having instructions stored thereon, wherein, when executed by the at least one processor, the instructions facilitate performance of operations, comprising, based on first environmental impact data representative of a first environmental impact associated with a first option available to perform a computing operation with respect to client data at a second computing system and second environmental impact data representative of a second environmental impact associated with a second option available to perform a computing operation with respect to the client data. In an embodiment, the operations can further comprise outputting the first environmental impact data and the second environmental impact data via a user interface of the second computing system. In another embodiment, the operations can further comprise, to reduce a carbon footprint associated with the computing operation with respect to the data, based on input data received via the user interface comprising an indication of a first selection of the first option, causing the first option to be implemented to perform the computing operation with respect to data, or based on the input data comprising the indication of a second selection of the second option, causing the second option to be implemented to perform the computing operation with respect to data. In a further embodiment, the operations can further comprise comparing the first environmental impact data with the second environmental impact data, and based on a result of the comparing indicating that the first option has a lower carbon footprint than the second option, recommending implementation of the first option. In another embodiment, the first option is a first data center operating at a first location and the second option is a second data center operating at a second location. In a further embodiment, the first option is a first data center operating with a first energy efficiency, wherein the second