Architecting ultra-large-scale green information systems

As environmental sustainability issues have come to the societal and governmental forefront, a new breed of Green Information Systems (IS) - Ultra-Large-Scale (ULS) Green IS - is emerging. A ULS Green IS is an open socio-technical ecosystem that differs from traditional IS in scale, complexity and urgency. Design issues found in ULS systems, System of Systems, Edge-dominant, Metropolis systems and Green IS converge and multiply in the ULS Green IS context. This paper presents a design framework and an architecture analysis method, ECO-ARCH, to address the design of such systems. Through an action research study on architecting for Demand Response systems in the Smart Grid, this article illuminates the system characteristics of ULS Green IS and endorses a fundamental shift in design thinking for its design - from “bounded rationality” for problem solving to “expandable rationality” for design for the unknown and for innovation. ECO-ARCH advances existing software architecture analysis methods by complimenting expandable rationality design thinking with proven engineering techniques in a dual-level macroscopic-microscopic analysis. This tackles the unique architecting problems of ULS Green IS where many stakeholders are unknown and design goals are not provided, where no architecture pre-exists, where system behavior is non-deterministic and continuously evolving, and where co-creation with consumers and prosumers is essential to achieving triple bottom line goals.