Sustainability Metrics Dashboard Example

This example dashboard focuses on collecting and displaying metrics that help teams implement buffering and throttling to flatten demand spikes and optimize resource use. By reducing sudden bursts in compute, networking, or storage, this approach aims to maintain a stable consumption pattern and contribute to sustainability objectives.

Key Measurements:

• Resource Demand Timeline: Track CPU, memory, and network usage over time to pinpoint peak demand intervals that can be smoothed through throttling.
• Buffer Utilization: Visualize how consistently buffers absorb demand spikes, ensuring the system runs efficiently without over-allocating resources.
• Throttling Thresholds: Highlight how often and how aggressively throttling occurs—indicating whether additional tuning is needed.
• Carbon Footprint Indicators: Estimate the carbon impact of each resource and how buffering reduces excess emissions over the reporting period.

Implementation Steps:

1. Set up observability and monitoring tools to gather real-time metrics on compute, network, and storage usage.
2. Define and configure buffering thresholds based on historical usage data to determine the ideal buffer size.
3. Enable throttling policies in the system to prevent resource overuse during inevitable spikes.
4. Review metrics and trends daily or weekly to refine thresholds and throttling parameters, ensuring minimal waste.

By employing this dashboard, operations teams can align resources to demand more effectively, ensuring environmental impact is reduced through consistent, measured consumption patterns.