Green Web Hosting

The environmental impact of the Internet isn’t a high-profile issue in the media, but it is a real concern, and one that has been taken seriously by those online businesses which host web sites for clients. Indeed, the issue has been serious enough to give rise to the emergence of Green web hosting and, by default, Green reseller hosting, an environmentally friendly form of web hosting.

For anyone who wants to take the Green approach as a reseller, it pays to know about how web sites are traditionally hosted, because reselling derives from this. In a traditional arrangement, the data center provides server space for a client’s website to go onto the Internet. Reseller hosting lets the client make use of their allocated server space to provide the same service for their own network of clients.

So what is the environmental impact? Well, the data center servers that are used consume a great deal of electricity. This consumption results in carbon dioxide emissions, and the more the Internet grows, the greater the proliferation of hosting services. This will inevitably increase the level of carbon dioxide emissions.

A related cause of pollution is the energy required to power the cooling systems required to keep the data center servers cool. This also consumes a tremendous amount of electricity and leaves a large carbon footprint.

In response to these problems, ecological technologies are being employed by data centers to reduce the pollution levels. And, as a consequence resellers have had to follow suit to satisfy the ethical demands of their clients.

One of the most prominent ways data centers employ Green ideas is through alternative energy sources, such as solar and wind power. Hydro-electric power and biofuels are also employed, though not as widely. A few data centers have looked into geothermal energy resources, which make use of geothermal resources near the earth’s surface (generally tectonic plate boundaries). This energy can be harnessed through dry steam and binary cycle power plants, though the use of these are dependent on the geographical location of the data center.

Another environmentally sound technology being used are liquid coolers, which are more effective than air coolers in absorbing heat from the servers. The fact that they don’t require more energy to operate than an air cooler makes them even more desirable.

Even the office operations of the data centers are run on environmentally friendly lines. Preference is given to electronic records over paper ones. Any paper records there are that can be deemed non-essential can be recycled, as can obsolete office equipment such as computers and fax machines. Some data centers are architecturally designed to let in as much natural light as possible, minimizing the need for electrical lighting to be used.

Since those who are involved in Green reseller hosting require server space from data centers to provide their own clients with an online forum, they would be best advised to assess the ecological credentials of the various providers before committing themselves. Research has to be done here, as many unscrupulous companies will falsely portray themselves as environmentally friendly.