Many will tell you that we can save the planet by switching from gas-guzzling automobiles to electric cars. But Zack Rosen says there\u2019s a better way. He\u2019ll tell you the impact would be greater if we just switched from virtual machines to Linux containers.<\/p>\n
Virtual machines are those things that let anyone run software on the massive cloud computing services offered up by the likes of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Rather than setting up its own computer servers, a startup like Netflix or Pinterest can build almost its entire operation atop virtual servers running in the cloud\u201d\u201cpieces of software that work much like a real machine. But Rosen believes we can seriously reduce the world\u2019s energy consumption if we swap these virtual machines for containers, a suddenly red-hot cloud computing technology that fits neatly into the open source Linux operating system, the OS of choice on the modern web. Among other things, containers can run large software applications in significantly more efficient ways.<\/p>\n
Citing multiple studies on power used by cars and data centers, Rosen estimates that, with so much of our software running on cloud services and other operations that use virtual machines, we have a better chance of saving the planet if we just embrace containers. \u201cThey\u2019re an order of magnitude more efficient,\u201d\u009d says Rosen, whose company, Pantheon, has long used containers to run its online service, a kind of website publishing platform. \u201cI think you can say\u201d\u201cwith an absolute straight face\u201d\u201cthat the containerization of software applications in the age of the cloud will save more CO2 emissions than electric cars.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n