Abstract
Digital infrastructures, i.e., ICT systems, or system-of-systems, providing digital capabilities, such as storage and computational services, are experiencing an ever-growing demand for data consumption, which is only expected to increase in the future. This trend leads to a question we need to answer: How can we evolve digital infrastructures to keep up with the increasing data demand in a sustainable way?
Objective:
The goal of this study is to understand what is the future of sustainable digital infrastructures, in terms of: which solutions are, or will be, available to sustainably evolve digital infrastructures, and which are the related adoption factors, impediments, and open problems.
Method:
We carried out a 3-phase mixed-method qualitative empirical study, comprising semi-structured interviews, followed by focus groups, and a plenary session with parallel working groups. In total, we conducted 13 sessions involving 48 digital infrastructure practitioners and researchers.
Results:
From our investigation emerges a landscape for sustainable digital infrastructures, composed of 30 solutions, 5 adoption factors, 4 impediments, and 13 open problems. We further synthesized our results in 4 incremental scenarios, which outline the future evolution of sustainable digital infrastructures.
Conclusions:
From an initial shift from on-premise to the cloud, as time progresses, digital infrastructures are expected to become increasingly distributed, till it will be possible to dynamically allocate resources by following time, space, and energy. Numerous solutions will support this change, but digital infrastructures are envisaged to be able to evolve sustainably only by (i) gaining a wider awareness of digital sustainability, (ii) holding every party accountable for their sustainability throughout value chains, and (iii) establishing cross-domain collaborations.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 100767 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-20 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | Sustainable Computing : Informatics and Systems (SUSCOM) |
| Volume | 35 |
| Early online date | 31 May 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Sept 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research received funding from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency Project “Energy Efficient Digital Infrastructures” (project number RVO-TSE2200010) and support from the LEAP Initiative of the Amsterdam Economic Board . Our sincere gratitude goes to the 48 participants who took part to this study, for their time, invaluable insights, passion, and support. Types of companies who participated in the study were hardware manufacturers, cloud providers, software service providers, consultancy firms, academic- and research institutes, funding agencies, and digital infrastructure customers. In addition to the participants that chose to remain anonymous, we would like to thank (in alphabetical order): Joris van den Aker (TNO), Orhan Alici (Senior Solutions Architect at Redhat), Nicola Calabretta (Assistant Professor in Electro-Optical Communication Systems at TU Eindhoven), Jeroen Cox (Strategic Lead Energy & Environment at KPN), Aaron Ding (TU Delft), Sagar Dolas (Adviser at SURF Innovation Lab), Niels Hensen (ITB2 Datacenters), Hans Hilgenkamp (University of Twente), Robbert Hoeffnagel (Adviser at SDIA/Green IT Amsterdam), Judith Inberg (University of Twente), Jos Keurentjes (University of Twente), Sjaak Laan (Director Consulting Expert at CGI), Jan-Willem Lammers (Principal Solutions Architect at VMware), Johan Mentink (Assistant Professor of Physics at Radboud University), Erik Negenman (Application Expert Low Voltage at Global Operations, Schneider Electric), Job Oostveen (TNO), Theo Rasing (Professor of Physics at Radboud University), Patty Stabile (Associate Professor on Neuromorphic Photonics at TU Eindhoven), Jeroen van der Tang (Public Policy Manager Duurzaamheid at NL Digital), Loek Wilden (CDCAP Team leader Digital Services & Execution at Schneider Electric).
Funding Information:
This research received funding from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency Project “Energy Efficient Digital Infrastructures” (project number RVO-TSE2200010) and support from the LEAP Initiative of the Amsterdam Economic Board. Our sincere gratitude goes to the 48 participants who took part to this study, for their time, invaluable insights, passion, and support. Types of companies who participated in the study were hardware manufacturers, cloud providers, software service providers, consultancy firms, academic- and research institutes, funding agencies, and digital infrastructure customers. In addition to the participants that chose to remain anonymous, we would like to thank (in alphabetical order): Joris van den Aker (TNO), Orhan Alici (Senior Solutions Architect at Redhat), Nicola Calabretta (Assistant Professor in Electro-Optical Communication Systems at TU Eindhoven), Jeroen Cox (Strategic Lead Energy & Environment at KPN), Aaron Ding (TU Delft), Sagar Dolas (Adviser at SURF Innovation Lab), Niels Hensen (ITB2 Datacenters), Hans Hilgenkamp (University of Twente), Robbert Hoeffnagel (Adviser at SDIA/Green IT Amsterdam), Judith Inberg (University of Twente), Jos Keurentjes (University of Twente), Sjaak Laan (Director Consulting Expert at CGI), Jan-Willem Lammers (Principal Solutions Architect at VMware), Johan Mentink (Assistant Professor of Physics at Radboud University), Erik Negenman (Application Expert Low Voltage at Global Operations, Schneider Electric), Job Oostveen (TNO), Theo Rasing (Professor of Physics at Radboud University), Patty Stabile (Associate Professor on Neuromorphic Photonics at TU Eindhoven), Jeroen van der Tang (Public Policy Manager Duurzaamheid at NL Digital), Loek Wilden (CDCAP Team leader Digital Services & Execution at Schneider Electric).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s)
Funding
This research received funding from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency Project “Energy Efficient Digital Infrastructures” (project number RVO-TSE2200010) and support from the LEAP Initiative of the Amsterdam Economic Board . Our sincere gratitude goes to the 48 participants who took part to this study, for their time, invaluable insights, passion, and support. Types of companies who participated in the study were hardware manufacturers, cloud providers, software service providers, consultancy firms, academic- and research institutes, funding agencies, and digital infrastructure customers. In addition to the participants that chose to remain anonymous, we would like to thank (in alphabetical order): Joris van den Aker (TNO), Orhan Alici (Senior Solutions Architect at Redhat), Nicola Calabretta (Assistant Professor in Electro-Optical Communication Systems at TU Eindhoven), Jeroen Cox (Strategic Lead Energy & Environment at KPN), Aaron Ding (TU Delft), Sagar Dolas (Adviser at SURF Innovation Lab), Niels Hensen (ITB2 Datacenters), Hans Hilgenkamp (University of Twente), Robbert Hoeffnagel (Adviser at SDIA/Green IT Amsterdam), Judith Inberg (University of Twente), Jos Keurentjes (University of Twente), Sjaak Laan (Director Consulting Expert at CGI), Jan-Willem Lammers (Principal Solutions Architect at VMware), Johan Mentink (Assistant Professor of Physics at Radboud University), Erik Negenman (Application Expert Low Voltage at Global Operations, Schneider Electric), Job Oostveen (TNO), Theo Rasing (Professor of Physics at Radboud University), Patty Stabile (Associate Professor on Neuromorphic Photonics at TU Eindhoven), Jeroen van der Tang (Public Policy Manager Duurzaamheid at NL Digital), Loek Wilden (CDCAP Team leader Digital Services & Execution at Schneider Electric). This research received funding from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency Project “Energy Efficient Digital Infrastructures” (project number RVO-TSE2200010) and support from the LEAP Initiative of the Amsterdam Economic Board. Our sincere gratitude goes to the 48 participants who took part to this study, for their time, invaluable insights, passion, and support. Types of companies who participated in the study were hardware manufacturers, cloud providers, software service providers, consultancy firms, academic- and research institutes, funding agencies, and digital infrastructure customers. In addition to the participants that chose to remain anonymous, we would like to thank (in alphabetical order): Joris van den Aker (TNO), Orhan Alici (Senior Solutions Architect at Redhat), Nicola Calabretta (Assistant Professor in Electro-Optical Communication Systems at TU Eindhoven), Jeroen Cox (Strategic Lead Energy & Environment at KPN), Aaron Ding (TU Delft), Sagar Dolas (Adviser at SURF Innovation Lab), Niels Hensen (ITB2 Datacenters), Hans Hilgenkamp (University of Twente), Robbert Hoeffnagel (Adviser at SDIA/Green IT Amsterdam), Judith Inberg (University of Twente), Jos Keurentjes (University of Twente), Sjaak Laan (Director Consulting Expert at CGI), Jan-Willem Lammers (Principal Solutions Architect at VMware), Johan Mentink (Assistant Professor of Physics at Radboud University), Erik Negenman (Application Expert Low Voltage at Global Operations, Schneider Electric), Job Oostveen (TNO), Theo Rasing (Professor of Physics at Radboud University), Patty Stabile (Associate Professor on Neuromorphic Photonics at TU Eindhoven), Jeroen van der Tang (Public Policy Manager Duurzaamheid at NL Digital), Loek Wilden (CDCAP Team leader Digital Services & Execution at Schneider Electric).
Keywords
- Sustainability
- Green IT
- Energy efficiency
- Digital infrastructures
- Data centers
- Cloud
- Landscape
- Qualitative research
VU Research Profile
- Connected World
- Science for Sustainability
