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franciscrot committed Jun 28, 2023
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Expand Up @@ -187,18 +187,21 @@ Datacentre sustainability is strongly influenced by location, and the local avai

[The Science Based Targets initiative sectoral guidance for ICT](https://sciencebasedtargets.org/sectors/ict) includes a focus on datacentres.

### Cloud optimisation and FinOps {#finOps}
### FinOps and GreenOps {#finOps}

Within business, there is already a considerable body of theory and practice around Cloud optimisation, associated with the [FinOps](https://www.finops.org/introduction/what-is-finops/) approach. FinOps actions taken to reduce Cloud spend (e.g. reservation management, data lifecycle management, continuous rightsizing) often have the unintended consequence of reducing carbon emissions too (although that's not *always* the case).

Interestingly, FinOps is also not *just* about cost in a narrow sense, but about multidimensional value (for example, the "Iron Triangle" of fast, cheap, and good service). FinOps practitioners are interested in the various trade-offs and co-benefits of using the Cloud in different ways.

So it looks like there is potential to integrate sustainability (and even climate justice) into FinOps practice. By bringing together financial, IT, and sustainability teams under a common objective, a FinOps Centre of Sustainable Excellence might allow these traditionally siloed disciplines to collaborate and share expertise.
So it looks like there is potential to integrate sustainability (and even climate justice) into FinOps practice. By bringing together financial, IT, and sustainability teams under a common objective, a FinOps Centre of Sustainable Excellence, or a GreenOps Centre of Excellence, might allow these traditionally siloed disciplines to collaborate and share expertise.

However, we're certainly not there yet. Sustainability is not a prominent theme in FinOps literature. As you might expect, FinOps also leans techno-solutionist, so there could be tensions with any really transformative thinking.

Major Cloud providers offer tools that anticipate a FinOps perspective, including [AWS Trusted Advisor](https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/technology/trusted-advisor/), [Microsoft Azure Cost Management](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/products/cost-management), [GCP Cost Management](https://cloud.google.com/cost-management).

Further reading: Filippo Vanara, [IDC, 'Rise of FinOps and GreenOps — The Importance of These Strategies in 2023 and Beyond'
](https://blog-idceurope.com/finops-and-greenops-strategies-in-2023/) (2023)

## Quantum computing {#quantum-computing}

This isn't something we have looked into yet, but we would appreciate any evidence or resources. A cursory exploration of the intersection of quantum computing and climate suggests quite a lot of positive framings, although also quite clearly some significant hype. Here's one interesting extended blog post:
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