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1 | 1 | --- |
2 | | -title: Instances footprint calculation |
3 | | -description: This page explains how Scaleway calculates the environmental footprint of its Instances in detail. |
4 | | -tags: instances environmental-footprint impact cloud-computing |
| 2 | +title: Load Balancer Footprint Calculation |
| 3 | +description: This page explains how Scaleway calculates the environmental footprint of its Load Balancer product in detail. |
| 4 | +tags: load-balancer environmental-footprint impact networking |
5 | 5 | dates: |
6 | | - validation: 2025-10-01 |
7 | | - posted: 2025-05-27 |
| 6 | + validation: 2025-11-10 |
| 7 | + posted: 2025-11-10 |
8 | 8 | --- |
9 | | -import image from './assets/scaleway-allocation-rules-instances.webp' |
10 | 9 |
|
11 | | -* Definition of the variables: We use the same variables defined here https://www.scaleway.com/en/docs/environmental-footprint/additional-content/environmental-footprint-calculator/#definition-of-the-variables. The Load Balancer product is based on the Instance product, therefore we take into account the impact of the underlying instances (see Instance documentation). |
| 10 | +Scaleway Load Balancers are built on top of the Instances infrastructure, meaning their environmental footprint is derived from the underlying virtual instances that power the service. The footprint calculation also accounts for additional control plane components specific to the Load Balancer service. |
12 | 11 |
|
13 | | -* Datacenter and technical environment: We perform the same calculation as defined here https://www.scaleway.com/en/docs/environmental-footprint/additional-content/environmental-footprint-calculator/#data-center-and-technical-environment, allocated according to the underlying instances (see Instance documentation). |
| 12 | +This page details how the environmental impact of Load Balancers is calculated. |
14 | 13 |
|
15 | | -* Network: We perform the same calculation as defined here https://www.scaleway.com/en/docs/environmental-footprint/additional-content/environmental-footprint-calculator/#network, allocated according to the underlying instances (see Instance documentation). |
| 14 | +<Message type="important"> |
| 15 | +The calculations described on this page take into consideration all the elements described in the [Environmental Footprint calculation breakdown](/environmental-footprint/additional-content/environmental-footprint-calculator/) documentation page. |
| 16 | +</Message> |
16 | 17 |
|
17 | | -* Customer servers: We perform the same calculation as defined here https://www.scaleway.com/en/docs/environmental-footprint/additional-content/environmental-footprint-calculator/#customer-servers, allocated according to the underlying instances (see Instance documentation). |
| 18 | +## Calculation Aspects |
18 | 19 |
|
19 | | -* Cross-IT equipment & stock: We perform the same calculation as defined here https://www.scaleway.com/en/docs/environmental-footprint/additional-content/environmental-footprint-calculator/#cross-it-equipment–stock, allocated according to the underlying instances (see Instance documentation), to which we add the impact of equipment required for the load balancer's control plane. |
| 20 | +The total estimated environmental impact of the Load Balancer product integrates the following components: |
20 | 21 |
|
21 | | -* Water consumption: identical to what is defined here. In the previous equations, we determined the electricity consumption associated with the use of the service; we reuse this value and multiply it by the WUE (Water Usage Effectiveness) to determine the water consumption associated with the service usage. |
| 22 | +- **Dedicated manufacturing impact** – Related to the physical servers hosting the virtual instances that run the Load Balancer service. |
| 23 | +- **Related manufacturing impact** – Includes the impact of tools used to manage the service: control plane, monitoring systems, and internal networking infrastructure. |
| 24 | +- **Energy usage impact** – The average electricity consumption during operation, including associated data center infrastructure (PUE), network, and cross-IT equipment. |
22 | 25 |
|
| 26 | +### Allocation Methodology |
23 | 27 |
|
24 | | -## Console overview |
| 28 | +The Load Balancer product reuses the same environmental footprint model as [Instances](/environmental-footprint/additional-content/instances-env-footprint/), with impact allocated based on the underlying instance usage. All variables (e.g., server lifespan, energy mix, PUE) follow the definitions established in the [Environmental Footprint calculation breakdown](/environmental-footprint/additional-content/environmental-footprint-calculator/#definition-of-the-variables). |
25 | 29 |
|
26 | | -Discover how to measure your footprint for Instances on the Scaleway console. |
27 | | -<GuideFlow src="https://app.guideflow.com/embed/9r25m0xazr"/> |
| 30 | +Specifically: |
| 31 | +- **Datacenter and technical environment**: Calculated as defined in the mother page, allocated according to the underlying instances [environmental-footprint-calculator.mdx]. |
| 32 | +- **Network impact**: Allocated proportionally based on the underlying instances’ network usage [environmental-footprint-calculator.mdx]. |
| 33 | +- **Customer servers**: Impact is calculated using the same method as for Bare Metal servers, but allocated according to instance usage [environmental-footprint-calculator.mdx]. |
| 34 | +- **Cross-IT equipment & stock**: The base calculation follows the general methodology, with an **additional allocation** for equipment dedicated to the Load Balancer control plane. |
28 | 35 |
|
29 | | -For Virtual Instances, the calculation of the environmental footprint takes into consideration all the elements described on the [Environmental Footprint calculation breakdown](/environmental-footprint/additional-content/environmental-footprint-calculator/) documentation page. |
30 | | - |
31 | | -## Calculation aspects |
32 | | - |
33 | | -The following elements are considered in the Instance footprint calculation: |
34 | | - - **Hypervisor resources** - the resources (CPU, RAM, and disk, for example) used in the physical hypervisor servers that create and run the virtual Instances. |
35 | | - - **Instance offer resources** - the vCPU, RAM, and disk resources used when you use an Instance. |
36 | | - |
37 | | -The calculation using the elements above can be broken down into: |
38 | | - |
39 | | -### Manufacturing Impact |
40 | | - - Manufacturing of the underlying physical servers (hypervisors) necessary to run the Instances. |
41 | | - - Distribution of the manufacturing impact according to the resources consumed by the Instance (vCPU, RAM, storage). |
42 | | - |
43 | | -### Operational Impact |
44 | | - - Energy consumption of the hypervisors during Instance usage. |
45 | | - - [Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE)](/environmental-footprint/concepts#pue-power-usage-effectiveness) specific to the data center where the Instance is hosted. |
46 | | - - Energy mix of the country that provides the electricity. |
| 36 | +> The manufacturing and energy impacts are first computed at the instance level, then attributed to Load Balancer usage based on resource consumption share. |
47 | 37 |
|
48 | 38 | ### Usage Impact |
49 | | - - Resources consumed by the Instance, [calculated based on the material specifications of the hypervisors](#electricity-consumption-calculation). |
50 | | - |
51 | | -### Indirect Emissions |
52 | | - - Impact related to cross-functional services necessary to guarantee the operation of the Instance, such as network and shared storage. |
53 | | - |
54 | | -## Instance consumption ratio |
55 | | - |
56 | | -When calculating an Instance's footprint, we consider the resources based on their relative usage on the hypervisor to ensure an accurate distribution of their proportional consumption. |
57 | | - |
58 | | -- **CPU** - Consider the share of vCPUs reserved compared to the total number of physical cores available. |
59 | | -- **RAM** - Consider the share of allocated RAM compared to the total RAM of the hypervisor. |
60 | | -- **Storage** - Consider the use of allocated storage compared to the total capacity of the hypervisor. |
61 | | - |
62 | | -<Lightbox image={image} alt="" /> |
63 | | - |
64 | | -The value derived from this calculation will be used in every step of the calculation of the Instance's footprint. The variable is represented as `Resources_Used_VM` in the image above. |
65 | 39 |
|
66 | | -Refer to the table below to understand how the `Resources_Used_VM` is integrated into the calculation of each aspect of the total footprint calculation. |
| 40 | +The energy consumption of Load Balancers is derived from the underlying instances. We use CPU usage as a proxy, applying [Boavizta’s non-linear consumption profiles](https://doc.api.boavizta.org/Reference/routes/#consumption-profile-routes) to estimate power draw. |
67 | 41 |
|
68 | | -To obtain an accurate calculation of the Instance's footprint, we multiply the results in each step of the [basis calculation](/environmental-footprint/additional-content/environmental-footprint-calculator/), bar the Cross-IT equipment & stock calculations step, by the `Resources_Used_VM` ratio. |
| 42 | +For operational impact: |
| 43 | +- **Energy mix**: French grid emission factor: 0.065 kgCO2e/kWh |
| 44 | +- **PUE**: 1.16 (average across Scaleway data centers) |
69 | 45 |
|
70 | | -## Electricity consumption calculation |
| 46 | +#### Calculation Example |
71 | 47 |
|
72 | | -The only part of the calculation that will differ from the basis is the [Customer Servers](/environmental-footprint/additional-content/environmental-footprint-calculator/#customer-servers) section. |
| 48 | +Assume a Load Balancer runs on an underlying instance with: |
| 49 | +- Power consumption: 110 W (0.110 kW) |
| 50 | +- Usage duration: 100 hours |
| 51 | +- Allocation ratio (based on instance share): `lb_ratio = 0.5` |
73 | 52 |
|
74 | | -To calculate the electrical consumption of Instances, instead of using an exact measure of the power consumption, we use a proxy, e.g. CPU usage. The relationship between CPU usage and the power consumption of the underlying machine is non-linear, and characterised by a consumption profile. |
75 | | - |
76 | | -A consumption profile is a formula that takes in a given workload (e.g. % CPU usage), and returns the estimated power consumption of the machine. |
77 | | - |
78 | | -We use the [consumption profiles defined by Boavizta](https://doc.api.boavizta.org/Reference/routes/#consumption-profile-routes) for the CPUs used on Scaleway Instances. |
79 | | - |
80 | | -For the [Environmental Footprint Estimation](/environmental-footprint/additional-content/environmental-footprint-calculator-estimation/), we base the calculation on a theoretical value of 30% CPU usage. On your [monthly report](/environmental-footprint/how-to/track-monthly-footprint/), we use your real CPU consumption to provide you with the most reliable data possible. |
81 | | - |
82 | | -### Calculation example |
83 | | - |
84 | | -In the example below we will calculate the manufacturing impact allocated to an Instance for an 100 hour usage period. |
85 | | - |
86 | | -Consider the following characteristics: |
87 | | - |
88 | | -| Resource | Instance | Hypervisor | |
89 | | -| --- | --- | --- | |
90 | | -| vCPU | 4 | 16 CPU cores | |
91 | | -| RAM | 8 GB | 64 GB | |
92 | | -| Storage | 50 GB | 1 TB (1000 GB) | |
93 | | -| Lifespan (in years) | | 6 years = 52560h | |
94 | | -| Manufacturing impact | | 100 kgCo2e | |
| 53 | +**Energy Usage Impact**: |
| 54 | +```math |
| 55 | +UsageFootprint = 0.110 \times 100 \times 0.065 \times 1.16 = 0.825\ kgCO2e |
| 56 | +``` |
95 | 57 |
|
96 | | -The allocation of the hypervisor resources for this particular Instance is calculated in the following manner: |
| 58 | +**Manufacturing Impact** (6-year lifespan = 52,560 hours, manufacturing impact = 850 kgCO2e): |
| 59 | +```math |
| 60 | +ManufacturingImpact = (100 / 52560) \times 850 \times 0.5 = 0.81\ kgCO2e |
| 61 | +``` |
97 | 62 |
|
98 | | -| Resource | Allocation | |
99 | | -| --- | --- | |
100 | | -| CPU | 4/16 = 0.25 | |
101 | | -| RAM | 8/64 = 0.125 | |
102 | | -| Storage | 50/1000 = 0.05 | |
103 | | -| Total Instance Share | 0.25 + 0.125 + 0.05 = 0.425 | |
| 63 | +Total footprint: **1.635 kgCO2e** for 100 hours of usage. |
104 | 64 |
|
105 | | -We multiply the resource allocation by the Instance's lifespan ratio and the hypervisor's manufacturing impact to obtain the manufacturing impact allocated to the Instance: |
| 65 | +<Message type="important"> |
| 66 | +Water consumption is derived from the same energy usage value, multiplied by the [Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE)](/environmental-footprint/concepts/#water-usage-effectiveness) of the data center. This applies to zones where WUE data is available (FR-PAR-1, FR-PAR-2, FR-PAR-3, NL-AMS-1) [environmental-footprint-calculator.mdx]. |
| 67 | +</Message> |
106 | 68 |
|
107 | | -``` |
108 | | -(100 hours / 52,680 hours) * 100 kgCO2e * 0.425 = 0.080 kgCO2eq |
109 | | -``` |
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