Sustainability Through Energy Efficiency Becomes a Key Focus in the Strategic Planning of Major Companies, Says IT Specialist

The progress achieved, particularly driven by technological advances, has propelled major organizations to new heights in a short period of time. This trend can be seen across various industries. However, properly harnessing these benefits does not automatically translate into success free from responsibility — quite the opposite, in fact.

Recent developments in the strategic planning of large organizations clearly reflect this. The analysis goes beyond mere numbers, as new concepts emerge, prompting companies to align their short-, medium-, and long-term strategies with both traditional and modern management principles. All of this unfolds in an increasingly challenging organizational environment — one that is competitive and unique.

That said, it is also possible to maintain a data-driven analysis within this new organizational mindset. A broad study conducted in 2024 revealed that 86% of companies had sustainability goals embedded in their short-term strategic plans.

In Brazil, one of the countries surveyed, only 3% of large companies had a proper strategic mapping for managing solid waste in their planning. Brazil, one of the largest economies in Latin America and among emerging markets, ranked just behind Mexico in this area — Mexico being a standout both regionally and within the global group of emerging economies.

Given this context of seeking sustainable alternatives, we can observe a telling example of this ongoing positive transformation: the increasing concern of the infrastructure industry with cloud computing activities, particularly data centers. This trend is strongly influenced by the sustainability concepts mentioned earlier.

“Choosing the right workload profile for each server is essential to balance performance and energy consumption. Different hardware vendors may use different names for these profiles, so selecting the right one during server onboarding is crucial. The goal is to maximize CPU performance when needed and save energy during idle times. Load testing and analysis of CPU states (P-state, C-state) are key to achieving this optimization.”

This explanation, summarizing the current pursuit of efficiency, comes from IT specialist Shriniwas Phalke. Among his contributions is the work of large organizations using cloud computing. With over two decades of experience, Phalke has witnessed this relationship evolve from its early stages to full maturity in recent years.

A Deeper Look Into His Path

With over 23 years of experience, Phalke has specialized in managing private cloud infrastructure as a service, with a strong focus on automation and operational efficiency. A certified systems administrator, he has extensive expertise in Python and shell scripting, helping optimize processes and enhance system performance.

He has also gained deep experience in managing large-scale environments using configuration management tools such as Chef, Ansible, and StackStorm. As an experienced Linux administrator, he has stood out for maintaining high-performance servers and delivering reliable infrastructure solutions. Furthermore, his innovative contributions are evidenced by the patents he holds.

“I helped develop an innovative cloud infrastructure monitoring solution that automates and enables self-healing for open-source cloud services like OpenStack. This agentless solution uses monitoring scripts deployed to all nodes via Chef, ensuring checks are performed locally. If issues are detected, the system attempts to self-recover; if the problem persists, automatic actions are triggered, such as ticket creation, team notifications, and removing the server from service. The system can differentiate node types and disable monitoring at the node, rack, or region level. Using tools like Chef, StackStorm, and Grafana, this solution significantly reduces the need for manual intervention,” Phalke explained, applying his acquired theoretical expertise.

A Concrete Example in Practice

Beyond the successful projects in Phalke’s career, this pursuit for sustainable goals in strategic planning by major IT companies can be illustrated through infrastructure-related decisions, especially in data centers worldwide.

In recent years, there's been a growing awareness of the need to integrate more reliable cooling systems into data center infrastructures. Sustainability once again plays a leading role. These new cooling systems, developed with modern concepts in mind, now include reused water, typically sourced from external environments. Similar methods are employed by steam-based cooling systems, following similar operational principles.

“Of course, the sustainability aspect stands out initially in these projects. There’s a clear effort to raise awareness behind it, aimed at improving the efficient use of energy sources. But that’s not all. The system itself benefits as well: with more reliable and efficient setups, service security improves — which in turn increases the project provider’s credibility with stakeholders.”

More on His Career Path

Shriniwas Phalke’s career began in 2001 in Mumbai, India, and has since earned him awards, certifications, and speaking invitations. Along the way, he secured at least two significant patents in the field of cloud computing and IT.

Since 2014, he has served for more than a decade at Walmart Global Tech, where he holds the position of Staff Software Engineer in cloud computing. At the company, he is responsible for building and managing private cloud infrastructure. He also manages high-performance servers from multiple vendors with varying hardware specifications, configures and manages Ubuntu Linux servers, automates processes using Python and shell scripting, and develops reports and dashboards.

In terms of academic background, he holds a Master’s degree in Computer Management from the University of Pune (2001) and a Bachelor's degree in Science (Chemistry) from the University of Mumbai (1999). He worked in India until 2008, after which he began contributing to the IT industry in the United States.