Revolutionizing Cloud Sustainability with MemVerge’s Jon Jiang

This is Techstrong tv. Welcome to Techstrong tv. I'm Bonnie Schneider.

Today we're delving into an innovative solution in cloud computing aimed at slashing its carbon footprint. This new approach is set to redefine how companies manage the environmental impact of their cloud-based operations. Joining me now is John Jang, COO of me, a leader in cloud automation software that's committed to enhancing sustainability in the tech sector.

John, it's great to have you here. It's great to be here, Bonnie. Wonderful.

Can you share more about your background and your journey to become becoming COO of me and what inspired the company's focus on reducing cloud computing's carbon footprint? Sure. Uh, Bonnie, I, I started in the IT industry, but, uh, prior to, um, joining me, I co-founded a travel tech company.

And in that role, I had the opportunity to travel to many parts of the world. And, uh, I was always awed by the beauty of our planet, but also, uh, keenly aware of the, uh, impact of pollution of, um, global warming on, uh, our environment, on businesses and on people's lives. So, uh, for me personally, I feel the sense of urgency to, uh, do something, uh, to protect our environment.

And, uh, and cloud computing has become such a crucial part of every industry and is a big source of, uh, carbon emissions. So the question I asked myself is, what can we do, uh, to, to help? And, uh, we felt that awareness is the first step and, uh, our software is already providing very granular resource information for every job, every user, and every group in, in a, in a, in a compute environment.

And, uh, we are, we felt that we are uniquely positioned to help our customers, um, to start to measure their carbon footprint, uh, on a per job and per user basis. And what about, what, what, how do you, with your customers, like, do you find that they're coming to you because they, they know that they have to do this there, there's, um, regulations about it, or do you find there's a general interest in for cloud computing and how can we reduce our carbon footprint? I was just wondering what, what sort of impressions you're getting from people in the beginning.

Um, the impression that I get is everybody caress. Everybody wants to do the right thing, but it's also a complex subject. And, and sometimes it's, uh, um, they have to weigh the investment, um, against the potential return.

And, and I think ultimately if we provided a tool that automates this process that makes it easy, that, uh, shows the, uh, impact it'll have in the customer base, then a lot of people will adopt it. That makes sense. Uh, can you talk a little bit more about the platform, specifically how it facilitates the reduction in, in, in, in their, your client's carbon footprint?

Yeah. So, um, our platform automates the process of launching workloads and managing workloads in the cloud. And, uh, as part of that, we provide what's known as observability, right?

So we, we monitor, um, the resource utilization of every task that's run in the cloud. So based on that, we can calculate the amount of resources and the amount of, uh, uh, so we can, we, we know the resources that's used and, and based on the resources that's used, we can actually calculate the carbon footprint. Um, so that's, uh, one thing that we do.

And then beyond that, uh, we can identify the opportunities to reduce carbon footprint, right? And, and the way we do that is we provide a way to automate the right sizing of the resources that's used for every task. So you don't want to devote too much resources for, uh, for each of your tasks, right?

And whenever you have, uh, uh, unused, uh, resources in the cloud, you are generating, uh, carbon footprint unnecessarily. Do you think, uh, most people find this, um, almost surprising about the amount of, of resources that they, they're using or maybe they underestimate the environmental impact that they're currently having? Um, yeah.

Uh, I, I think people, when we showed our report, uh, uh, in our dashboard, we have this, uh, carbon footprint calculator. They're always surprised at, uh, how much, how, how many kilogram, uh, of carbon that they're generating of carbon emission their, uh, their jobs are generating. And, and it's, um, it becomes a metric that they use to evaluate what kind of workload they need to run.

Well, um, um, a large portion of our viewers right now work in the IT field as practitioners, and they're very interested in this topic. So I was wondering if you could get into more detail how mem Verge, uh, suggests a three step blueprint for organizations to achieve it sustainability goals. So can you talk about the first step which involves cutting CO2 emissions through cloud on ramping, and then briefly describe the other steps.

Sure. So, um, cloud computing, um, has two components. One is, um, one is known as operational emissions, and the other is embedded emissions.

Operational emissions refers to, uh, how much power and cooling that your, your compute is, is consuming and embedded refers to the amount of equipment that you're using, because every equipment requires manufacturing and that generates carbon footprint. So, um, the goal is to reduce both, right? And, and the three steps are, uh, first step is to bring more workload in the, into the cloud.

And the reason is that the cloud, um, is more efficient because the cloud service providers are incentivized to, uh, reduce the co the cost of the infrastructure that is power space cooling, as well as, uh, to increase the utilization of the, of the, of their servers. So, um, the amount of investment that they've put into the operational efficiency makes them, um, more, uh, make, makes them have more efficient infrastructure. So in general, it's advantageous to move your workload into the cloud.

Mm-Hmm. So that's the first step. The second step is you have to know what you are consuming, what you're emitting, right?

So that's the, uh, that's the carbon footprint calculator that we provide. And the third step is to do something about it, and that's rightsizing. So the third step is to use automation tools that help you, uh, minimize waste in terms of, uh, cloud resource usage.

Uh, yeah. So our software, you know, plays in all three of these, uh, steps. That's great.

Well, as member continues to evolve, uh, can you talk about some of the new features that are coming or any innovations that, that we could expect that you're excited about, that excited you'll be introducing to talk more about, um, sustainability and cloud computing? Yes. So ai, right?

A AI is in vogue and it is changing the way we do everything. Um, and as part of ai, uh, we are seeing a huge, uh, increase in demand for more computing power, and especially in the demand for GPU, uh, uh, computations. And, and, uh, um, the, one of the features that, that I'm most excited about, uh, for our product is, uh, the ability to support GPU enabled platforms.

Uh, and we are bringing the, uh, carbon footprint calculations, uh, along with that new feature to support the GPUs. That is, that is really great. Um, I think our audience is just gonna be fascinated by, uh, by everything you're saying.

Um, can you, can you give some advice though, for, for people that are in the IT fields that are looking to just be more sustainable in the work that they're doing? Um, anything that, just general tips that you can provide? Um, I think, uh, my advice is get started.

Uh, don't wait, right? And sustainability is about saving the planet, but it is also going to help you win over customers. Uh, so, uh, there are many things that all of us can do, get started.

Yeah. That's great. Great advice.

Um, thank you so much, John Jang, COO of member for joining us today on Techstrong TV and sharing your valuable insights on pioneering sustainability in the realm of cloud computing. It was a really interesting interview. Thank you, John.

Thank you, Bonnie. Thank you for having me. Wonderful.

Alright, well stay with us on Techstrong tv. We'll have a lot more interviews and great conversations coming up.