Summary:
• 1. Mobile app sustainability: Hunting down agglutinated code
• 2. The alternative to ephemeral apps: PAAS
• 3. Choosing your data center: a key element in a sustainable approach
In an article dated December 12, 2019, Maddyness reported on start-up initiatives in line with the creation of a sustainability and repairability index for commercially sold items.
The criteria used? Failure rate, availability of spare parts, consumer and expert evaluations, etc.
As part of our commitment to organizing events that are as eco-friendly as possible, we couldn't ignore these announcements and wanted to get involved in this initiative ourselves.
Objects are just the tip of the iceberg. We are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of recycling them and giving them a second life, which is great, but what about data?
Is there such a thing as reusable data? Second-hand mobile apps? Code recycling? A crazy idea, you might say? Well, not really... Let us explain:
"Sticky" code or monolithic architecture is still the dominant model for mobile application design around the world today.
This method's main feature is that it encodes a program in a single autonomous block. As with an object, this has serious consequences for an application's durability!
In fact, to update a component of the program, it is necessary to rewrite the entire application... A waste of time, a waste of energy, endless lines of code—the human, technical, and financial effort involved is not insignificant.
The architecture we advocate for a sustainable app is a so-called "micro-service" architecture, which we have personally chosen for our platform.
It is a development method that is easier to implement, more agile, and more sustainable 🙂
The different modules coded using this method are independent of each other and can therefore be updated without having to review the entire structure. This saves developers time, energy, and lines of code! It's the winning combination for creating a sustainable and reusable app.
PaaS, or "Platform as a Service," allows a company to use a single solution to monitor all of its internal applications. There is no longer any need to use four different management software programs to switch from an HR solution to an event solution or training software, for example.
Pooling digital tools thus increases sustainability. Indeed, an element that has been coded once can be reused for all of the group's digital solutions. In this way, the energy allocated to programming, data hosting, content updates, and R&D is pooled for greater sustainability and reparability.
Finally, PaaS goes against conventional wisdom and offers a concrete advantage for businesses: it combines sustainability with profitability.
It reduces development time while increasing the agility of IT teams: a win-win situation!
A concrete example of this increased sustainability for mobile applications at AppCraft ? The ability for our customers to retain work previously done from one event to the next; Platforms that pool modules for events, business travel, training, and business unit sales promotion; A microservice architecture that facilitates and reduces the costs of marginal adjustments from one project to the next 🙂
The sustainability of an application is measured in terms of its design... but also its storage. It is therefore essential to consider the problem holistically and, above all, not to neglect the choice of a data center.
A set of simple criteria can help you stay vigilant in this regard:
The cooling system used: Energy-intensive air conditioning, overworked fans, or natural fresh air? Significant progress has been made in this area in recent years, and some data centers now use outside fresh air to cool their computers. They also take advantage of this to reuse the heat generated by these centers for domestic purposes.
The geography of the location: In short, the closer the better! Choosing a data center in the country or region where your company is located gives you greater reliability and faster access to information.
Maintenance: Finally, find out about the maintenance of your chosen data center. Choosing an operator that maintains its own site ensures more sustainable and reliable quality control than if this task were outsourced.
