Scalable Architectures to Support Sustainable Advanced Information Technologies

Advanced computing resources are requested by different interest groups, with the acceleration of digital transformation generated both by the pandemic and by the explosive increase in available information. Data centers have increased significantly over the past years to answer this demand but are now facing energy efficiency issues and performance requirements. Renewable energy is a promising solution by supplying local energy, but this power generation is reduced, intermittent, and requires changing how computation and data storage is managed. Edge/Fog computing is a promising solution to latency concerns proximity to data centers; however, this solution often extends existing clouds, imposing no specific principles to reduce energy and greenhouse emissions. This paper discusses challenges of a scalable architecture to support sustainable advanced information technology requirements inspired by the circular economy characteristics. The architecture has to keep rethinking computation, optimizing deployment, and regenerating energy.