Optimize areas of code that consume the most time or resources

Optimizing resource consumption in your code is essential for sustainability. By reducing the computational load and resource usage, you can extend the lifecycle of your infrastructure while minimizing environmental impact. This not only benefits sustainability efforts but also leads to cost savings and improved application performance.

Best Practices

Conduct Regular Code Profiling and Performance Testing

• Use performance profiling tools (such as AWS X-Ray, Amazon CodeGuru Profiler, or language-specific profilers) to identify code hotspots that consume excessive CPU or memory.
• Create systematic tests (load, stress, and endurance) to ensure code changes do not degrade performance or reintroduce inefficiencies.
• Prioritize and optimize the most resource-intensive segments first, balancing code readability with performance gains.

Adopt Efficient Algorithms and Data Structures

• Review your current implementations to ensure you are using algorithms and data structures that optimize runtime and reduce memory consumption.
• Regularly revisit your application’s logic based on usage patterns or new libraries that can reduce operational overhead.
• Document any changes thoroughly to ensure teams maintain consistent optimization standards.

Implement Caching and Lazy Loading Strategically

• Cache frequently accessed data to reduce repeated processing and I/O overhead, employing services like Amazon ElastiCache or Amazon CloudFront.
• Delay (lazy) or selectively load non-critical resources until they are needed to lower peak resource consumption.
• Review and adjust cache expiration policies to balance performance for end users with the cost and energy use of stale data.

Eliminate Redundant Processes and Code

• Analyze the application’s modules to remove duplicate logic or unnecessary steps that waste processing power.
• Use a microservices approach or serverless patterns where appropriate to break down large codebases, so only necessary components run as needed.
• Regularly refactor and simplify code to reduce complexity, making maintenance easier and more energy efficient.

Monitor and Optimize Resource Usage Continuously

• Set resource consumption thresholds and alerts to highlight any unexpected spikes in CPU, memory, or network usage.
• Continuously measure and improve performance over time to ensure the ongoing sustainability of your workload.
• Conduct periodic architecture reviews to align with evolving best practices that reduce your application’s carbon footprint.

Questions to ask your team

• How do you profile and measure the code within your workload to identify areas that consume the most resources?
• What optimization techniques (such as caching or concurrency improvements) do you use to reduce resource usage in critical code paths?
• How frequently do you review and refactor code to ensure ongoing improvements in efficiency?
• Do you have a process to estimate and track the potential or realized resource savings from code optimizations?
• How do you ensure that performance enhancements do not negatively impact your workload’s maintainability or user experience?

Who should be doing this?

Sustainability Lead

• Define sustainability targets and metrics for code optimization initiatives
• Coordinate efforts across teams to ensure alignment with sustainability goals
• Evaluate the effectiveness of code optimization on resource consumption

Solutions Architect

• Analyze existing architecture to identify high-resource usage areas
• Design optimization strategies that align with sustainability objectives
• Recommend architectural patterns that efficiently use computing resources

Software Developer

• Optimize code to minimize resource usage and execution time
• Implement efficient data structures and algorithms
• Conduct regular performance profiling and refactoring to maintain code efficiency

DevOps Engineer

• Automate performance testing and monitoring for continuous feedback
• Manage deployment pipelines to ensure resource-efficient releases
• Collaborate with developers to implement optimized run-time environments

What evidence shows this is happening in your organization?

• Code Optimization Checklist: A concise list of tasks and considerations to identify inefficient code segments, ensure responsible refactoring practices, and reduce resource consumption.
• Performance Profiling Report: Detailed assessment of application modules and functions that consume the most compute time or resources, along with recommendations for performance improvement.
• Continuous Optimization Plan: A structured plan outlining ongoing performance reviews, regular code audits, and iterative improvement cycles to maximize resource efficiency.
• Sustainability Driven Development Guide: Guidelines that integrate sustainability objectives into the development lifecycle, ensuring that code enhancements align with reduced resource usage and minimal environmental impact.

Cloud Services

AWS

• Amazon CodeGuru Profiler: Helps identify inefficient code by analyzing resource usage, enabling optimization of performance and reducing unnecessary resource consumption.
• AWS X-Ray: Traces requests in distributed applications to pinpoint performance bottlenecks and reduce infrastructure usage.
• AWS Compute Optimizer: Analyzes resource utilization to make recommendations for optimal AWS resource configurations.

Azure

• Azure Application Insights: Monitors and checks performance bottlenecks in applications, helping to reduce resource usage.
• Azure Monitor: Collects and analyzes telemetry data to optimize performance and minimize resource consumption.
• Azure Advisor: Provides proactive, actionable recommendations to improve resource efficiency and performance.

Google Cloud Platform

• Cloud Profiler: Continuously profiles CPU and memory usage to pinpoint code inefficiencies and reduce resource demands.
• Cloud Trace: Helps identify performance bottlenecks across distributed systems to optimize resource utilization.
• Recommender: Suggests optimizations and best practices to reduce idle resources and enhance performance.