Sustainability Training Guide Example

Context

Optimizing resources provided to team members is crucial for minimizing environmental impact while meeting their operational needs. Tailoring resources to individual requirements helps reduce waste and maximize efficiency. This guide demonstrates how to align cloud resources with demand, creating a more sustainable work environment.

Key Considerations

• Right-Sizing Resources: Evaluate user workloads, selecting instances and configurations that match actual usage patterns, thus avoiding under- or over-provisioning.
• Auto Scaling: Implement auto scaling based on demand metrics to ensure elasticity, enabling resources to scale up or down as needed.
• On-Demand vs. Reserved Instances: Balance cost and sustainability by using on-demand instances for fluctuating workloads and reserved instances for stable workloads.
• Monitoring and Reporting: Continuously track resource utilization and overall consumption, adjusting configurations for optimal performance and minimal waste.
• Continuous Improvement: Regularly re-assess workloads and resource usage, adopting emerging technologies or configurations that optimize sustainability.

Example Implementation Scenario

A small development team frequently tests new applications with varying usage spikes. By enabling auto scaling, resources dynamically expand and contract to match workload peaks and troughs. Through monitoring CPU and memory usage over time, they downsize instances where usage is consistently low. This approach prevents over-allocation, leading to cost savings and reduced environmental impact.

Additional Best Practices

• Consider serverless architectures for intermittent workloads to further minimize resource usage.
• Leverage managed services that automate scaling and reduce overhead.
• Regularly review resource reports to identify underutilized services or idle resources.