“One of the things us technologists are really, really bad at is hoarding,” began Kylie Fowler, Principal Consultant at ITAM Intelligence as she opened her presentation on tech waste at Dynamic Earth. 

And tech hoarding comes in multiple forms, hardware, software, and cloud services all contribute to wasted tech, resulting in wasted money, eventually culminating in tech debt. 

Tech debt is the collective future cost of choosing an easy, short-term solution that will lead to long term limitations and eventually, the need to purchase another solution. 

This can build up across all three different categories of tech waste, and can prevent key innovations as companies attempt to replace sub-par hardware and incompatible software systems. 

In her presentation, Fowler detailed the main issues regarding tech waste and the strategies companies can adopt to mitigate tech debt.  

Hardware 

Electronic waste is typically associated with hardware – old laptops, desktops, obsolete printers and phones that pile up. 

“That physicality is something else,” Fowler commented regarding hardware waste. 

But we can’t just continue to throw out this hardware with no further plans – “we need to think about it holistically, throughout its lifetime,” Fowler insisted. 

Considering the use-life span, long term compatibility, and carbon footprint of hardware is essential in mitigating future waste and its associated costs. 

“Hardware is where there is a big chunk of carbon waste as well, so we need to think about our energy efficiency and our embedded carbon within our hardware equipment and what the ratio of those two things can help us manage our It equipment most effectively as well,” Fowler explained.

While the majority of the carbon footprint of servers and networks derives from the electricity they use, laptops and desktops mainly contribute embedded carbon, which is released during the manufacturing and recycling process. 

“So if we can find a way of getting our laptops and desktops to be reused at the end of life, we’re reducing our carbon footprint,” Fowler emphasised. 

Doing your due diligence on how and where to dispose of hardware is also essential – a company was fined about $60 million USD for disposing of hardware that had not been wiped of confidential data. 

Further, making sure employees are aware of their own obligations when disposing of hardware peripherals is vital to prevent extra waste, more carbon emissions, and the disposal of hardware with private data. 

Software 

While software lacks the physical burden of hardware, compatibility issues and the need for continuing maintenance makes it a key driver of tech waste. 

“It’s in software where we really build our tech debt, which makes it really hard for us to innovate and move forward,” Fowler said.

The financial waste of software is also large as upgrades and updates are essential – but if these are not done responsibly, they can lead to an unnecessarily large price tag. 

Still, software is where we see exponential innovation, allowing more efficiency, cutting down on repetitive tasks, allowing technologists to work more effectively and innovate themselves. 

“The temptation is really to control our software, to think very carefully, ‘do we want to have this software in our organisation’ but actually these days, particularly with SaaS software, SaaS is a really big driver of innovation,” Fowler expanded. 

“Bear in mind the need to balance control over software with the need of your business to be able to access new and innovative ways of doing things.”

Its in the sourcing of software, however, the waste has the most potential to start and build. 

“Sourcing software and negotiating with software vendors is a really skilled activity,” Fowler said. 

Having an internal team to source and negotiate for appropriate software to maximise compatibility and use-life, while balancing the need for innovation, all within a decent price tag is key. 

Cloud 

Cloud is an unavoidable expense – the way to mitigate Cloud waste is by managing it effectively. 

“The challenge in managing Cloud and avoiding financial waste with Cloud is just the sheer volume of data that you receive,” Fowler said.

While Cloud servers can provide multiple data points by the second on what is being used, and this can make it more difficult to understand what services are useful and which are a waste. 

Cloud’s flexibility is actually key to managing it – while Cloud contract negotiations are vital to minimising financial waste, day to day decisions can make a huge difference on Cloud instances. 

Ensuring that contracts flex up and down with Cloud instances is essential in mitigating cloud waste, and this is best done via moment by moment decision making internally. 

Instantaneous control can open up different servers for short bursts of time with an expected high volume of use, while allowing these servers to be abandoned at no cost when traffic dips. 

But leaving these decisions to a team of technologists, Fowler said, would be a waste as well. 

Having a separate FinOps team to understand contracts and analyse data usage moment by moment to maximise efficiency would secure this instantaneous control while allowing technology teams to do their real jobs, Fowler suggested instead. 

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It’s in the Process 

Throughout Fowler’s presentation, it was clear that there was no magic key to minimising tech waste – it took hard work, problem solving, and prioritisation. 

More importantly, it took having the right people in control at the right stages along the process. 

In house teams dedicated to hardware, software, and Cloud procurement and maintenance is key to minimising waste in each department. 

Fowler touched on the hierarchy of data, information, knowledge and wisdom. 

“We get huge amounts of data from all of our assets, from Cloud particularly, and we need to convert that information and then we need to apply our knowledge to that so that we can make wise decisions,” she said. 

And applying this to the procurement process of tech is what reduces waste and tech debt. 

In Cloud, this would mean matching as closely as possible, what is being used and what is being consumed. 

For software, this would be matching software to provide the most innovation while making sure it lasts the longest, complies with licensing agreements, and is compatible with legacy and future software. 

In the case of hardware, this is especially important in considering different kinds of carbon emissions as well as conflicting data on what technology is the most innovative and what will last the longest. 

Fowler suggested a return to the target operating model: “It’s that blend of process, people, tools and partners.” 

A robust process with people at each end – with housekeepers who can maintain day to day challenges in maintaining tech to minimise waste, to tools and partners turn data into useful information, to action takers and decision makers who can apply this knowledge and make wise decisions considering technology – is key to minimising tech waste.