[connect-wg] New on RIPE Labs: You’ve Got the Power: Sustainable Procurement and the RIPE Community

Thank you for this. {resending from subscribed address}

I think that one of the key things to reducing e-waste is to keep devices in
productive use longer.  The smartphone cycle is largely being driven by
planned obsolescence through lack of software updates.  While few of us here
are in the smartphone business, we see the same thing with CPE devices.

No software updates means poor security, which pushes for replacement of the
devices.
More capable devices can sustain more updates, but cost more up-front,
and there still very little relationship between price paid and number of
years of supported software updates.  At least, I believe this anecdotally.
It would be nice if we had survey data to prove or disprove this belief.
Perhaps RIPE along with some of the entities you mentioned might be able to
do a confidential survey of ISPs in order to summarize the results?

EN 303 645 and upcoming UK legislation requires that the support time for
devices to be made clear at point of purchase.  See
https://www.iotsecurityfoundation.org/keep-software-updated/ for many
references. (Yes, I'm the presenter for the webinar, the first of which was
this morning)

While the nic.cz Turris system is well supported, and very capable, I'm not
any influence on big ISP purchasing.
What kind of software support lifespans are ISPs able to contract?
While many RIPE clueful people know about, deploy and contribute to openwrt,
it does not seem to show up in a supported way in devices that I see either
big or small ISPs deploying.  The big ones don't seem to care.  The small
ones can't afford to take a risk.

Years ago, it was the common that an ISP would buy some 12-port switching
device for it's core, and two years later (when it was too slow), would
migrate it from the core to an access aggregator, and then two years later,
it might find a few more years service as internal lab equipment, or being
used for a multi-tenant CPE.   I learnt this as a switch (chip) designer.
Is this still a thing?

In my more recent (2014-era) hands-on ISP experience, this was no longer a
thing, because the devices had all become far too specialized.  Maybe SDN is
changing this?  Are there best practices in making purchase decisions that
support this migration of equipment?
{I'm reminded of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQjHJKNyoUE }

Michael J. Oghia <mike.oghia at gmail.com> wrote:
    > I'm happy to share an article that Mirjam and I just published on RIPE Labs
    > about sustainable procurement practices:

    > https://labs.ripe.net/Members/michael_oghia/you-ve-got-the-power-sustainable-procurement-and-the-ripe-community

    > I wanted to post it here because I think it's relevant to this group as
    > operators, managers, and others. I'm keen to hear your thoughts, and
    > encourage you to leave comments on the article so we know how to best take
    > this forward (and also gauge interest).

    > Have a good weekend,,
    > -Michael
    > __________________

    > Michael J. Oghia | Advocacy & Engagement Manager
    > Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD <https://gfmd.info>)
    > Belgrade, Serbia (UTC+2) | Twitter <https://www.twitter.com/MikeOghia> |
    > LinkedIn <https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeoghia>
    > GPG: E95D 2127 0D45 77D3 4D43 4D5A E3BA 6F23 301D 7082

    > ---------- Forwarded message ---------
    > From: Mirjam Kuehne <mir at ripe.net>
    > Date: Fri, Aug 28, 2020 at 2:15 PM

    > Dear colleagues,

    > Buying equipment can have an impact on environmental sustainability.
    > Michael Oghia writes about issues surrounding sustainable procurement
    > and how the RIPE community has the potential to make a difference:

    > https://labs.ripe.net/Members/michael_oghia/you-ve-got-the-power-sustainable-procurement-and-the-ripe-community

    > Kind regards,
    > Mirjam Kühne
    > RIPE NCC

    > ----------------------------------------------------
    > Alternatives:

    > ----------------------------------------------------
    > _______________________________________________
    > connect-wg mailing list
    > connect-wg at ripe.net
    > https://mailman.ripe.net/

--
Michael Richardson <mcr+IETF at sandelman.ca>, Sandelman Software Works
 -= IPv6 IoT consulting =-



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