Dear all,
[My apologies if you receive multiple copies of this message]
TL;DR I lead an academic research project to better understand the motives behind network hardware upgrades. If you are operating a network infrastructure and have 10 minutes to spare, we would greatly appreciate you filling out this short (anonymous) survey: https://tally.so/r/rjEkZR
== Longer version ==
My name is Romain; I am a senior scientist at ETH Zürich, Switzerland, where I research the environmental impacts of Internet infrastructure and how we can steer networks to become more sustainable in the future.
There is increasing evidence that a large part of the Internet's impact comes from the manufacturing, deployment, and recycling of hardware, suggesting that networks could substantially reduce their footprint by keeping network devices in operation for longer, despite possibly higher energy consumption in older hardware models. Some of my ongoing research aims to assess whether this hypothesis is correct; happy to tell you more about that if you are interested.
Assuming it is indeed correct that network hardware should be kept in operation for longer, if we want to encourage this, we must understand why networks are being upgraded today.
* What are the main motives behind network hardware upgrades nowadays? * What factors are preventing or discouraging longer hardware lifetime in networks?
We prepared a short survey to help answer those questions. After some brief contextualization questions to clarify the network type and context, the core of the survey presents a list of possible motives for hardware upgrades and asks, for each, how important it typically is in your own network upgrades. The second half of the survey contains (optional) questions related to the current environmental sustainability practices in your organization. If you are operating a network or working for an organization that operates a public or private network infrastructure, we would greatly appreciate you filling out this short (anonymous) survey: https://tally.so/r/rjEkZR
And, naturally, you are more than welcome to share this survey within your own network (of humans, I mean). Many thanks in advance!
— Romain