by: Observability and Tools Staff Engineer George Stephen Manual
The IT environment consumes about six percent of the world’s generated power; 20 to 30 percent of that is idle workloads. These figures highlight opportunities for optimizing resource use and increasing sustainability in the IT environment.
To achieve improvement, it is important to measure the impact. VMware IT leverages VMware Aria® Operations to find the best optimization solutions for a greener and more sustainable future. VMware Aria Operations helps measure and calculate a Sustainability Green Score, which quantifies the level of sustainability.
Ways VMware IT increases the sustainability green score
VMware is committed to increasing its sustainability green score through various initiatives and practices. Here are some of our innovative strategies that actively contribute to a greener and more sustainable future.
Infrastructure optimization
- Resource allocation: this ensures that virtual machines (VMs) are allocated appropriate CPU, memory, and storage resources. Using VMware Aria Operations, resource bottlenecks are identified, and adjustments can be made to optimize performance.
- Rightsizing VMs: this identifies oversized and undersized VMs through the Optimize -> Rightsize dashboard and takes remedial actions. Rightsizing VMs ensures optimal performance and resource use.
Aging hardware
- The Green Supply dashboard helps identify aging hardware that can be recycled for better performance.
- Upgrading to newer CPUs and storage hardware improves efficiency and reduces power consumption. The Aging Compute Hardware and Aging Storage Hardware widgets help identify old, less energy-efficient hardware.
Small clusters
- The Small Clusters widget in the Green Supply dashboard identifies clusters with fewer nodes or lower capacity. Replacing small clusters with larger ones reduces overhead and power consumption.
Workload placement
- The Workload Placement dashboard ensures optimal resource allocation and alignment with business objectives, promoting resource efficiency and performance.
Virtual machine optimization
- Regularly optimizing VM configurations by updating VMware tools and virtual hardware versions helps identify low network use. The Virtual Machine Optimization dashboard provides metrics to optimize VMs.
Reclaim unused resources
- The Reclaim dashboard helps identify resource availability, potential cost savings, and workload optimization status. Reclaiming unused resources increases capacity and efficiency.
Run with minimal overhead and buffer
- VMware Aria Operations automates operational optimization, including powering off idle VMs to save power and reduce emissions.
Green score calculation
- The green score is calculated based on workload efficiency, resource use, virtualization extent, power source and hardware efficiency. VMware Aria Operations contributes to workload efficiency and use scores, while manual updates are made for virtualization, power source, and hardware efficiency.
Sustainability score for data centers
- Sustainable data center operations focus on green supply, clean demand, and clean operations, contributing to a higher green score.
- Optimization and remediation are vital to improving sustainability, reducing operational overhead and increasing the data center’s green score. VMware Aria Operations provides optimization recommendations and allows for customization based on specific environments. Automation features enable auto-remediation. While achieving a 100 percent green score may not be possible, continuous optimization efforts will increase the percentage over time.
VMware is dedicated to sustainability and to reducing its environmental impact, as is evident through various initiatives. VMware is making significant strides toward a greener future by leveraging virtualization, cloud technologies, and energy-efficient data center designs. As we continue this sustainability journey, we invite you to stay tuned for more updates and information on our progress. Check back regularly for new insights and sustainability best practices. Together, we can drive positive change and create a more sustainable world for future generations. Let’s make a difference together.
VMware on VMware blogs are written by IT subject matter experts sharing stories about our digital transformation using VMware products and services in a global production environment. To learn more about how VMware IT uses VMware products and technology to solve critical challenges, visit our microsite, read our blogs and IT Performance Annual Report and follow us on SoundCloud, Twitter, YouTube. All VMware trademarks and registered marks (including logos and icons) referenced in the document remain the property of VMware.
