review-platform-and-service-updates-regularly.md #154
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yelghali
changed the title
dubrie
added
initial review
proposed pattern
| published_date: tbd | ||
| category: cloud | ||
| tags: | ||
| - compute |
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please include cloud in the tags list as well
| Platform updates enable you to use the latest functionality and features to help increase efficiency. Running on outdated software can result in running a suboptimal workload with unnecessary performance issues. New software tends to be more efficient in general. | ||
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| ## Solution | ||
| Upgrade to newer and more efficient services as they become available. |
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I'm not sure I agree with this as a pattern. Newer software isn't necessarily more efficient, in fact it goes against one of the Embodied Carbon principles of ensuring your software is backwards compatible and doesn't require new hardware. Can you provide more specificity here or connect it to a metric that supports the view of "newer == more efficient"?
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I would agree that newer software tends to be less efficient in most of the cases (I might be biased, as I need to buy a new laptop and upgrade from my 2016 one... :/ )
@yelghali : I think it would be a good idea to test/validate if the newer software is more efficient before upgrading or provides better support for your use case. When not, then skip
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| Regarding the SCI equation, regularly updating your platforms and services will impact: | ||
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| - `E`: Using the latest functionality and features helps increase energy efficiency. |
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Newer doesn't mean more efficient. For example, newer could mean new features that don't get utilized but still are transfered, installed, or impact the Energy use in some unintended way that ends up decreasing the SCI score for the user.
| Update & Upgrades processed are automated. | ||
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| ## Considerations | ||
| Consider backward compatibility and hardware reusability. An upgrade may not be the most efficient solution if the hardware or the OS isn't supported. |
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Even if the hardware and OS are supported, an upgrade doesn't necessarily mean more efficient. Software changes are typically driven from monetary perspective of the developer which may or may not align with the emissions perspective and efficiency for the user.
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I agree with Bill; new updates may not imply performance improvements and can be purely security/vulnerability fixes, which adds to the overhead of installation/patching all affected compute resources.
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This pattern can be a general best practice (tags as general) or add more context - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/sustainability-pillar/sus_sus_dev_a3.html
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Initial review completed, ready to move to SME review @navveenb |
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I propose to close this PR, due to the discussion. @markus-gsf-seidl What is your opinion on that? |
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Agreed @franziska-warncke , software is becoming slower and slower and also sometimes faster. It's difficult and not as easy as the pattern states. |
@dubrie