As urban populations continue to surge, cities are increasingly seeking innovative solutions for sustainable transportation. Amazon VGT2, a forward-thinking mobility initiative under the Volkswagen Group, is rising to this challenge by offering eco-friendly and efficient urban transport services. Currently operational in Hamburg and Hannover, Germany, VGT2 utilizes AWS for their backend, data processing, analytics, and business intelligence tasks. Their ride-sharing platform aims to enhance urban sustainability by decreasing air pollution and traffic congestion.
This article delves into how VGT2 leverages AWS to tackle three dimensions of cloud sustainability: sustainability THROUGH the cloud, IN the cloud, and OF the cloud.
Sustainability Through the Cloud at VGT2
VGT2 is transforming urban mobility by making it smarter. Their vehicles operate without fixed routes; instead, they dynamically calculate optimized routes for passengers with similar origins and destinations. While riders may need to walk a short distance to designated pickup spots, these stops are strategically agreed upon with local authorities.
The company employs modern, fully electric vehicles designed for comfort and efficiency, and a user-friendly app for booking rides. Collaborating with city officials, VGT2 aims to offer affordable, convenient, and sustainable transportation options while reducing individual car usage and optimizing road network efficiency. This exemplifies sustainability through the cloud, as VGT2 harnesses AWS technology to address larger environmental challenges.
The sustainability initiatives at VGT2 encompass ecological, economic, and social dimensions. Their mission to redefine urban mobility not only provides an eco-friendly solution that cuts emissions but also lowers transportation costs and fosters more pleasant living environments.
Shared Responsibility Model for Sustainability
Sustainability is a joint effort between AWS and its customers. AWS is committed to enhancing cloud sustainability through efficient infrastructure, responsible water usage, and renewable energy sourcing. On the other hand, customers, like VGT2, focus on sustainability in the cloud, striving to optimize workloads and resource usage while minimizing resource deployment.
Sustainability in the Cloud at VGT2
Achieving sustainability in the cloud begins with understanding environmental impacts and setting sustainability objectives. VGT2 works towards these goals by enhancing resource utilization, eliminating waste, and adopting more efficient hardware and software. Their cloud specialists ensure that algorithms and cloud usage are optimized following best practices.
For instance, VGT2 leverages serverless services, allowing their infrastructure to automatically scale down during off-peak times, such as late nights when fewer vehicles are on the road. Certain workloads that don’t require real-time data are processed in batches, aligning service level agreements (SLAs) with sustainability goals. Moreover, VGT2 runs larger analytics jobs during off-peak hours to minimize energy demand.
Utilizing Amazon Kinesis, VGT2 buffers vehicle telemetry data, with rate limits set to prevent data consumption spikes. They’ve also adopted energy-efficient AWS Graviton2 instances, which provide a favorable price-to-performance ratio. Operating primarily in Germany, they store and process data in the AWS Frankfurt region, optimizing the energy mix and minimizing the carbon footprint.
VGT2 employs Amazon CloudWatch to monitor workloads, identifying underutilized resources. By integrating cloud and business metrics, they establish proxy metrics for sustainability, such as computing resources used per passenger ride. Additionally, they utilize S3 Storage Lens to manage data efficiently, including lifecycle rules that transition seldom-accessed data to more energy-efficient storage options.
Lastly, VGT2 automates deployments using Apache Airflow, allowing them to keep workloads current and experiment with improvements.
These architectural and technological choices highlight VGT2’s commitment to sustainability in the cloud.
Sustainability of the Cloud
While customers are accountable for sustainability in the cloud, AWS plays a critical role in ensuring the sustainability of its infrastructure. This begins with careful selection of data center locations to mitigate environmental risks. AWS also focuses on sustainable construction practices, such as collaborating with CarbonCure Technologies to enhance concrete strength while capturing recycled carbon dioxide.
Moreover, AWS prioritizes the responsible sourcing of equipment, emphasizing the reuse of parts and recycling of components. The company also designs in-house hardware to extend device lifetimes, ensuring waste is managed responsibly.
For more insights on sustainable practices in the industry, check out this blog post or explore the expertise of CHVNC on the subject. If you’re interested in contributing to this field, consider looking into this fantastic opportunity at Amazon.
Leave a Reply