Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to footerScaleway DocsAsk our AI
Ask our AI
Log inSign up

Load Balancer Footprint Calculation

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.

This page details how the environmental impact of Load Balancers is calculated.

Important

The calculations described on this page take into consideration all the elements described in the Environmental Footprint calculation breakdown documentation page.

Calculation Aspects

The total estimated environmental impact of the Load Balancer product integrates the following components:

  • Dedicated manufacturing impact – Related to the physical servers hosting the virtual instances that run the Load Balancer service.
  • Related manufacturing impact – Includes the impact of tools used to manage the service: control plane, monitoring systems, and internal networking infrastructure.
  • Energy usage impact – The average electricity consumption during operation, including associated data center infrastructure (PUE), network, and cross-IT equipment.

Allocation Methodology

The Load Balancer product reuses the same environmental footprint model as Instances, 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.

Specifically:

  • Datacenter and technical environment: are calculated as defined in the global calculation methodology, and allocated according to the underlying instances.
  • Network impact: Allocated proportionally based on the underlying instances’ network usage.
  • Customer servers: Impact is calculated using the same method as for Instances, and allocated according to instance usage.
  • Cross-IT equipment & stock: The base calculation follows the global methodology, with an additional allocation for equipment dedicated to the Load Balancer control plane.
Note

The manufacturing and energy impacts are first computed at the Instance level, then attributed to Load Balancer usage based on resource consumption share.

Usage Impact

  • The energy consumption of Load Balancers is derived from the underlying instances. We use CPU usage as a proxy, applying Boavizta’s consumption profiles to estimate power draw.
  • The operational environmental impact of a service depends on two key factors: the energy mix of the host country and the datacenter's PUE. Refer to the Calculation reference values documentation page to find the values corresponding to your region.

Calculation Example

Assume a Load Balancer runs on an underlying Instance with:

  • Power consumption: 110 W (0.110 kW)
  • Usage duration: 100 hours
  • French energy mix: O,065kgCo2e/kwh
  • Datacenter's PUE: 1,16

Energy Usage Impact:

UsageFootprint = 0.110 * 100 * 0.065 * 1.16 = 0.825 kgCO2e

Manufacturing Impact (6-year lifespan = 52,560 hours, example manufacturing impact = 850 kgCO2e):

ManufacturingImpact = (100 / 52560) * 850 * 0.5 = 0.81 kgCO2e

This means that the total footprint for 100 hours of Load Balancer usage, in this case, is 1.635 kgCO2e

Important

Water consumption is derived from the same energy usage value, multiplied by the Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) of the datacenter. This applies to zones where WUE data is available (FR-PAR-1, FR-PAR-2, FR-PAR-3, NL-AMS-1).

Still need help?

Create a support ticket
No Results