Sustainable development in the cloud is economical and resource-efficient 

Alma Media has over 100 digital services and marketplaces created by Alma’s developers and designers. At Alma, solutions that promote sustainability in digital development focus on the use of cloud services and resource-efficient design of services, but also on, for example, taking care of information security and security and ensuring the accessibility of services. 

Developers aim for efficient platforms in the cloud in their practical work, from which applications are served to users. According to observations by Alma’s developers Anna Suo-Anttila and Minna Vanhasalo, an ecologically considerate and performance-optimized cloud also brings economic savings. 

In the video, Anna Suo-Anttila talks about her thoughts on sustainable digital development. Subtitles in English.

Cloud services offer efficient, environmentally friendly, and economical solutions 

Anna Suo-Anttila and Minna Vanhasalo, who work with Alma’s housing services, became interested in sustainable software and service development through their own personal values and the training sessions they followed, and wanted to delve deeper into the subject. “It turned out to be quite a rabbit hole that you could dive into as deep as you wanted,” laughs Suo-Anttila. 

For Alma, the choice to use cloud services plays a big role in ecological digital development. Cloud centers can optimize energy consumption better than traditional data centers, improve resource sharing and scalability, making energy savings possible. In addition, many cloud centers offer various tools to enhance cloud usage in addition to their actual services. Furthermore, security and data protection features integrated into cloud services strengthen the company’s own work in ensuring safer services. 

“Cloud services offer flexibility, which allows for the use of resources only as needed and the scalability of services leads to lower energy consumption. Large cloud platforms, such as Amazon Web Services, which we mainly use, are committed to sustainable operations, which naturally also helps us to act sustainably,” describes Vanhasalo. 

One thing, in particular, surprised Suo-Anttila as she delved into the different perspectives of sustainable digital development. “I have noticed that sustainable service development is often also cost-effective and commercially sensible, as sustainable solutions produce resource-efficient services,” she says and continues, “At Alma, we guide and help developers to do things sensibly through various recommendations and training.” 

Developers play an important role in promoting sustainable service development 

Software development, like other business activities, can be done sustainably. Alma’s developers’ joint technological choices offer recommendations for tools and services where also ecologically sustainable features are emphasized. Many developers may not think about their impact possibilities, but there are ways to sustainable service development,” says Suo-Anttila and continues, “The least everyone can do is to tell others about their desire to make an impact, at Alma you can promote things that are important to you with the support and tips from colleagues. This way, grassroots ideas can evolve into the company’s operating methods and the impact multiplies.” 

It is important for everyone to see the impact of their work, and therefore tools and metrics for sustainable service development are essential. Some units of Alma are further in their sustainable development process, but more could still be done in setting common indicators and targets. “Corporate culture that prioritizes sustainability and encourages collaboration between teams from a sustainability perspective should be a priority,” Vanhasalo contemplates. 

“I believe that every developer wants to make sustainable cloud and service development. If it is also commercially profitable, it is motivating for the developer, profitable for companies, and sustainable for society and all of us,” Suo-Anttila summarizes. 

Follow Alma’s developers’ work on Instagram @almadevelopers 

Read more about Alma’s sustainability.

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