Microsoft published Azure cloud sustainability technical guides and skills offerings in a move to "support the societal infrastructure for a sustainable world," Microsoft VP of Industry, Apps, and Data Marketing Alysa Taylor said. The guide was released as part of the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP 27).

Taylor described the annual climate change conference as "a pivotal moment" for Microsoft and its role in driving "meaningful action to address and combat global climate change," which she stressed is no longer just an environmental issue.

Customers have made it clear that environmental sustainability is a business imperative by asking Microsoft how to achieve and prepare for the evolving cast of sustainability requirements, incentives, and regulations, Taylor explained. And in terms of sustainable cloud infrastructure, the most common concerns center around lowering energy usage and costs, but carbon emissions as well.

To address those concerns and the "learning curve" of cloud sustainability, Microsoft released a new set of resources on Azure cloud architectural guidance.

The Azure Well-Architected Framework provides sustainability guidance on how to optimize cloud workloads within Azure. The documentation builds on the sustainable software principles of the Green Software Foundation, which include security, reliability, operational excellence, performance efficiency, and cost optimization. Sustainability uniquely intersects with each principle, Taylor said, so Microsoft approaches "the topic as a lens across workloads rather than a standalone pillar."

The cloud provider's new self-assessment tied to the Azure Well-Architected Framework allows organizations to examine the potential impact of various cloud architecture design decisions during workload planning, and it guides the optimization of workloads for carbon and energy efficiency. The assessment also provides "specific recommendations you can act on, whether you’re implementing or deploying an application or reviewing an existing application," Taylor added.

On the Kubernetes front, Taylor highlighted Microsoft's guidance on sustainable software engineering practices for Microsoft's Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) orchestration platform. The guidance details how to build and operate applications in AKS with an emphasis on design and configuration checklists and recommendations focused on sustainability.

Microsoft also released cloud sustainability skilling programs that "provide a starting place to help your people and teams understand how they can contribute to their organization’s sustainability goals while developing highly relevant skills and expertise," Taylor said.

The Azure Cloud Skills Challenge offers an interactive and gamified way for teams to learn about Microsoft's cloud sustainability technologies and assess performance against industry peers. Taylor also highlighted Microsoft's course on the principles of sustainable software engineering, which covers topics like electricity and carbon efficiency, carbon intensity, and the trade-offs required for optimization.

"Our goal is to meet you where you are and help you do more with less, whether you’re building cloud-native applications, operating in hybrid environments, or evaluating solutions for organization-wide emissions reporting," Taylor said.