The Foundational Technologies Services and Cloud Technologies teams are responsible for making available and maintaining IT options that benefit the University as a whole. This also involves promoting and improving the cloud technologies service at Yale. We recently connected with Associate Director of Cloud Technologies Kay Ratanasaka, and Sr. Director of Foundational Technologies Services Louis Tiseo to gain their perspectives on the team’s efforts and the importance of Yale’s commitment to sustainability.
How do you feel your work has helped contribute to Yale’s climate goals?
The goal of our team is to make it easy for the Yale community to consume Cloud resources, which contributes to Yale’s climate goals in several ways. Providing virtual servers reduces computer hardware on campus, thereby decreasing on-campus space and energy consumption. Cloud providers are committed to environmental goals and strive for 100% renewable energy usage for their global infrastructure. Cloud providers also use the latest hardware, maximizing processing power for energy consumed. Cloud resources are flexible and scalable, allowing users to test on small servers and quickly scale up (or down) when needed. To achieve the same results with physical hardware would require very large servers standing by.
What makes you excited about Yale’s commitment to sustainability?
We need to take global warming seriously. Yale leading the way will have a tremendous positive impact in environmental awareness.
Why do you think Yale’s sustainability goals are important?
Yale is a premier institution that can set the example and the bar for others to follow. We only have one mother Earth and we need to protect and sustain her for future generations.
Any recommendations for how readers can help conserve energy at Yale or at home?
One simple way that we can all conserve energy both at home and at work is to turn off and unplug computers and appliances when not in use. They draw power by just by being plugged in, even when not in use.
Special recognition to the following members of ITS, who have played an important role in Yale’s commitment to sustainability: Vincent Balbarin, Sandy Bouton, Camden Fisher, Tenyo Grozev, Andrew Guirguis, Jason Ignatius, Kay Ratanasaka, Brandon Tassone, Louis Tiseo, and Darryl Wisneski.