As part of an upcoming project, our team will focus on improving the efficiency and sustainability of our application. Our goal will be to reduce energy consumption, network load, and carbon footprint by applying green coding principles.
Planned Technology Stack:
- Backend: Python
- Frontend: React.js
- Database: PostgreSQL (to be migrated to Db2)
- Infrastructure: Cloud environment
Planned Technical Improvements
Reducing Network Operations
- We will eliminate redundant frontend-to-backend API requests by optimizing data retrieval logic.
- We will implement a local backend cache for frequently accessed data, which will reduce database load and improve response times.
Database Access Optimization
- We will migrate from PostgreSQL to Db2, enabling better integration with the IBM ecosystem and more efficient resource management.
- We will implement a connection pool for database access to reduce initialization time and improve performance.
- All SQL queries will be executed using prepared statements to enhance security and reduce database load.
- We will remove all `SELECT *` queries and replace them with explicitly selected columns to reduce data transfer and improve query efficiency.
- Some SQL queries currently executed by the backend will be moved to stored procedures in the database to improve performance and eliminate unnecessary operations.
Reducing Dependencies
- We will analyze all used libraries and remove heavy or unused dependencies, replacing them with lightweight alternatives or custom implementations.
Eliminating Redundant Operations and Optimizing Algorithms
- We will identify algorithms with unnecessary computations and optimize them using more efficient data structures and logic.
- We will refactor parts of the code that perform repetitive or costly operations to reduce CPU load and improve energy efficiency.
What's Next
- We will measure energy consumption before and after optimizations.
- We will share the results as an internal guide or open source PoC, which could benefit other teams.
Invitation to the Community
If you are working on similar initiatives or have experience with green coding, we would love to exchange ideas. We believe sustainability starts with architecture and code-and every optimization matters.