As the world confronts the challenges of climate change and environmental sustainability, reducing energy consumption and minimizing carbon footprint have become important priorities for our customers. The IT sector, including data centers and cloud computing, plays a significant role in global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
So, how do we tackle the challenge of achieving sustainability goals when at the same time the amount of data power needed by cloud data centers is rising? AWS, one of the global cloud computing leaders, might have an answer, by relying on a new microprocessor design based on Arm solutions. Let’s take a look at how this works.
Arm are actively working on innovative solutions to significantly improve energy and cost efficiency for reducing the environmental impact. Arm-based processors, like AWS Graviton, are designed to optimize performance while significantly reducing energy consumption, which aligns with the need to reduce carbon footprints. Those processors are specifically engineered for energy efficiency. They use a lower amount of power to execute computational tasks, thus reducing the energy consumption associated with cloud-based workloads. By reducing energy consumption, organizations can enjoy cost savings on their cloud infrastructure bills.
Through Proofs Of Concept (POCs) and post-implementation customizations in production environments, Capgemini has gained a comprehensive and detailed understanding of the tangible benefits of Arm-based processors by using and validating AWS landscapes. This enabled us to illustrate the commitment to intelligent, green and cost-effective cloud computing.
The first step required an analysis of the existing AWS landscape with a focus on the existing EC2 instances. The main objective of this assessment was to evaluate the feasibility and benefits of transferring existing EC2 workloads to AWS Graviton-based instances. The assessment aims to identify the potential cost savings, performance impact, and energy consumption reductions that can be achieved by using AWS Graviton processors.
Key components of the Assessment:
The second step involved migration of the identified workloads and a subsequent test execution to ensure a smooth transition with no or minimal disruption. In addition to functional tests for quality assurance, the test also included load and performance tests to test the workload before and after the migration to Graviton for displaying performance gains, as well as additionally measuring the energy consumption to make the savings potentials achieved visible from this.
Migrating software to Arm-based processors such as AWS Graviton can be a complex process, but with careful planning and execution, you can take advantage of the cost-effectiveness and performance benefits these instances offer. The biggest challenge was to ensure that the software was compatible with the Arm architecture, that Arm-compatible versions were available for all third-party libraries and dependencies used by the application, that the operating system installed on the Graviton instances (for example, a Linux distribution) was compatible with the application and that it was correctly configured for the Arm architecture, and that, for databases used, it was ensured that the DBMS chosen had Arm-compatible versions.
The migration of large workloads described above contributes to clients’ goals of primarily saving costs through lower energy consumption, which also reduces CO2 emissions. This means that the ESG goals, which are increasingly coming into focus, can be met with a manageable outlay.
The results are very impressive. With little effort and within only a few days, we were able to port the existing x86-based containerized EC2 applications to Arm-based AWS Graviton with the following results:
To learn more please take a look at our offering “Cost and energy savings powered by AWS Graviton - Capgemini”. Or you might want to get in touch with me directly? Connect with me on LinkedIn.