Updates to and publish of SaaS technology category - #84
Open
dsmithsl wants to merge 1 commit into
Open
Conversation
dkrees
reviewed
Jul 1, 2025
| SaaS products are typically multi-tenant where many users share the same servers and database. This means that infrastructure will typically be heavily utilised and won't have periods of doing no work like a dedicated physical server or even dedicated cloud VM might. | ||
|
|
||
| How much of an advantage this is depends on how an organisation runs software. Where an organisation uses dedicated hardware for an application then there is likely a notable gain here. On the other hand where an application cluster like Kubernetes is used then the advantage is less because this also permits high utilisation. Even so, the use of SaaS generally ensures all components including the DB are shared, which isn't always the case for in-house cloud apps. | ||
| How much of an advantage this is depends on how an organisation runs software. Where an organisation uses dedicated hardware for an application then there is likely a notable gain here. On the other hand where an application cluster like Kubernetes is used then the advantage is less because this also permits high utilisation. Even so, the use of SaaS generally ensures all components including the DB are shared, which isn't always the case for in-house cloud apps. |
Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Can we replace "DB" with "database" - for clarity?
dkrees
reviewed
Jul 1, 2025
| | Front-end emissions | Measurement | Yes | | ||
| | Number of requests and request times | Browser stats or metrics on backend to backend call | Yes | | ||
| | Data stored | Reported by SaaS or tracked by company | Yes | | ||
| | Location | Service location often published as has regulatory implications. Also can be reverse looked up via IP (but could be misleading if intermediary like a CDN is inbetween the client and servers) | No | |
Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment.
"inbetween" typo "in between"?
dkrees
reviewed
Jul 1, 2025
| A common approach to estimating emissions for suppliers is to use information about how much money has been spent with a provider to work out rough emissions. This works on the assumption that the more money you spend with a supplier the greater the proportion of the emissions of that supplier are attributable to you. For example, if you buy a ticket on a plane a certain fraction of the plane's (and ultimately airline's) emissions are associated with your company. If you buy ten tickets the fraction of emissions attributable to your organisation is ten times higher. | ||
|
|
||
| This is an approximation method promoted by Sustainable Web Design (SWD) Community Group and published on <a href="https://sustainablewebdesign.org/calculating-digital-emissions/">sustainablewebdesign.org</a>. The method is specifically about websites but parts of it can be adapted for other uses. It covers all aspects of a service from the front-end through to embodied carbon on the server and although it provides one number as an output this can be split if only part of the estimate is of interest. The input to this method is the number of GBs transferred. | ||
| To do this calculation requires an emissions factor which is a single number with a unit of CO2e per amount of currency spent (e.g. kgCO2e per dollar spent). These figures are worked out based on research and published as databases such as the BEIS emissions factors. You can then take your total spend and simply multiply it by this factor to get an estimate. |
Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment.
BEIS emissions factors? Link?
dkrees
reviewed
Jul 1, 2025
|
|
||
| {% include linkedHeading.html heading="Further refinement of estimations" level=4 %} | ||
|
|
||
| The SWD and 1-byte methods are primarily based around quantity of data transferred. This has in part been chosen as a proxy metric for the issue of bloaded page weights. Large page weight is a major factor in emissions from end-user devices, servers, networking equipment and also the cause of rapid end-user device turnover. Therefore, optimising the page weight of a website can make it more sustainable. This might not be the largest factor in some cases (some of which are discussed below). With some knowledge of the specifics of a particular website or SaaS product it may be possible to take into account the most significant factors. This provides a better picture of emissions and can make carbon optimisation efforts more effective. |
Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment.
"bloaded"? Bloated perhaps?
dkrees
reviewed
Jul 1, 2025
| {% include linkedHeading.html heading="Emissions from the backend" level=5 %} | ||
|
|
||
| The SWD and 1-byte methods are primarily based around quantity of data transferred but this isn't always a fair representation of the processing time on the server. For example it may be that a number of data sources (e.g. multiple DB tables or separate services) need to be queried in order to fetch a lot of data that is then aggregated down to just a few values resulting in a small returned payload. | ||
| It may be that a number of data sources (e.g. multiple DB tables or separate services) need to be queried in order to fetch a lot of data that is then aggregated down to just a few values. This will result in a small returned payload and an underestimation of emissions when using estimates purely based on data transfer quantity. |
Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment.
"DB" - can we use "database" again?
Collaborator
|
Navigation side bar doesn't include the SaaS page (navigation in general needs reviewing and overhauling). |
Collaborator
|
We need to include SaaS based AI services (ChatGPT, Claude etc etc).
|
This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
Sign up for free
to join this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in to comment
2 participants
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
Description of Change
Putting SaaS technology category up for review. Credit to @dhope-scottlogic with some minor updates.