PRETORIA: The cost of storing the world’s constantly growing ‘dark data’ – data that is stored but never used – is creating a significant carbon footprint and requires new thinking from information technologists. 

This is the warning contained in the second PhD thesis by Professor Hanlie Smuts, Head of the Department of Informatics and Chair of the School of Information Technology in the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology at the University of Pretoria (UP).

“The world is generating and storing data at a significant pace, which requires vast servers in countless data centres globally, using lots of power to store the data and keep the servers cool,” Prof Smuts says. “If you consider that at least 50% will never be used again, this is a huge waste of power, and it contributes a heavy carbon footprint. As information technologists we must address this as it is incumbent on us to not only manage systems more effectively, but also to look after the environment and lower the carbon footprint.”

Prof Smuts will receive her second PhD at UP’s 4 September 2025 graduation ceremony, at the same time as informatics PhD student Lungisa Dotye, whom she supervised.

A specialist in knowledge management, both her PhDs are in information systems. For this PhD, she developed a socio-technical framework and guideline for people in organisations to master dark data management and contribute to digital decarbonisation.

She says that globally, data centres already account for approximately 2% of carbon or greenhouse gas emissions, and this is expected to double by 2030 as digital adoption accelerates. Yet dark data remains largely unaddressed. “The reason for this,” she explains, “is it is mostly unstructured, hidden in legacy systems or backup servers, and it often escapes the attention of information technology and sustainability teams. Its elusive nature makes it both expensive to manage and easy to ignore.”

She was inspired to pursue this field for her PhD after she attended a presentation by Tom Jackson, Professor of Information and Knowledge Management at Loughborough University, UK, who is leading research and policy change on digital decarbonisation. 

“His talk made such an impression on me, and he called on all information technologists and knowledge management practitioners to join forces and combat digital decarbonisation,” she explains. 

A key aspect of addressing this challenge is to transform how organisations manage their dark data by introducing knowledge management strategies coupled with digital decarbonisation, which requires shifting from passive storage to intentional data classification and streamlining, and ‘cleaning out’ all obsolete content and data. 

“People and organisations have a tendency to keep everything,” Prof Smuts explains. “Even on our mobile phones we have hundreds or thousands of photos, with many duplicates, stored in what we call the ‘cloud’, but which is actually a huge data storage centre somewhere in the world. If we think of this in global organisation terms, we begin to understand the glut.”

New PhD graduate Lungisa Dotye

Prof Smuts is proud of the work of Lungisa Dotye, a graduating PhD candidate whose research she supervised. His research study, ‘A framework for developing cloud-based architectures that optimise decision support systems’, explored how organisations can leverage cloud computing to enhance decision support systems and improve data-driven decision-making. “Organisations can significantly benefit from the efficiency and cost-benefit ratio if their teams know how to optimally use the cloud for anything from performance dashboards to learner management systems, which we do at UP,” she explains.

Dotye is the 16^th PhD graduate whose research she has supervised, and she is currently supervising an additional 12 PhD students. “As society becomes increasingly knowledge- and technology-driven, information systems provide the foundation for graduates to thrive in dynamic careers and contribute meaningfully to shaping the future of business and society,” she says.

“We enrol approximately 300 first-years in Informatics each year, based on the capacity of our computer centres, facilities and labs. And we cannot produce enough graduates for industry. They are very quickly snapped up, many receiving several job offers.”

Prof Smuts says she is positive about the future of work in South Africa. “In our country and globally, work is being reshaped by digital transformation, artificial intelligence, automation and new forms of work such as the gig and platform economies. In South Africa specifically, addressing the digital divide, youth unemployment and access to technology will be key to unlocking the potential of these changes.”

She says the best advice that she can give to all new graduates is the same advice she received early in her career, summarised by the following quote by legendary American football coach Vince Lombardi: “Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence.”

She reminds her students to keep the quest for excellence in mind in their research. “It is a reflection of who we are, our values, standards and commitment to excellence. Work is not just a series of tasks or outputs, it is a lasting imprint of our character and professional integrity. It pushes us to hold ourselves accountable, to lead with purpose, to continuously strive for quality and impact. Excellence is not about perfection; it is about consistency, curiosity and courage. Autograph everything you do with quality, impact and excellence, and let your journey be bold and purposeful.”