December 24th in Blog by Tom . Leave a comment.
Rackspace has gone green! Right? We looked closely and here’s what we found.
In their words:
Working with a partner like NativeEnergy, Rackspace is diligently working toward the goal of being a greener company. We know it’s not something that can happen overnight, but by addressing the problem and educating our customers and employees, we are taking the first step toward a cleaner tomorrow.
Here is what we found:
From the inside: Rackspace works with employees to minimize their environmental impact. They host a “Green Day” with local vendors as well.
For customers: Rackspace worked with NativeEnergy to develop a carbon footprint calculator for consumers to use. See the calculator here. Looking closely at the calculator, it looks more like a conversion tool for roping in new customers.
The nitty gritty: What about their nine datacenters? Rackspace has made no claim that they have offset their non-renewable energy usage. They redirect the attention to a few important but small changes like using compost on their lawns. Seriously? This is far from a “green web host”.
Although we’re not discounting the efforts they have made, Rackspace has fallen short of our recommendation. We thought it would be only fair to ask for their input. We contacted Rackspace through their online chat tool, here is the full, unedited conversation.
Welcome to Rackspace. We are connecting you to our next available operator.
My name is Justin V. and I am a Live assistant. How may I help you today?
you: Hi, I’m reading about Rackspaces “green” efforts…
you: I see lots of programs, but have you offset your energy usage with renewable energy certicates?
Justin V.: that’s a great question. let me get you the contact to our team that will be able to provide those details for you.
Justin V.: are you looking for a new hosting provider at this time or is this for a new project/
Justin V.: green initiative
you: I am reviewing Rackspace’s “green” program for a blog I run.
Justin V.: oh ok, the link provide has a lot of great info. about our Green Initiatives
you: Yea, I read the green initiative page. I found some great programs, but no mention of offsetting the massive amounts of energy your 9 datacenters use.
Justin V.: our PR contact will be able to follow up with this for you and better address that topic.
Justin V.: For all media inquiries, please contact Rachel Ferry at ….
Justin V.: (email removed)
you: Ok, thank you.
The verdict: Rackspace has been around a long time and probably offers quality hosting services. If you’re looking for a truly green web host, however, you best look somewhere else.
December 22nd in Knowledge Base by Tom . Leave a comment.
Reselling web hosting services is a very common thing. Your own web hosting provider may be a reseller without you even knowing it! Reseller hosts typically pay for a more expensive account with another host, and have tools to re-sell you space out of their allottment.
There is a slight difference between reselling and co-locating which is outlined in a future post.
So how do you check if your host is a reseller? It can be tricky, but the first place to check is this website: http://www.whoishostingthis.com. Enter your web hosts domain (ie: hostgator.com). It will run what’s called a “reverse DNS lookup” which will indicate where the servers are actually located. You’ll notice Hostgator is actually hosted by a company called “The Planet” which is a large-scale server leasing company.
Reseller hosting is not necessarily a bad thing. If you are looking for basic hosting services, this is a perfectly fine source. If you want core access, root access, and very specific requirements, you may want to look at companies who are not resellers.
December 22nd in Blog by Tom . Leave a comment.
Let’s be honest, most of the green web hosting businesses out there are simply resellers. Even companies as big as Hostgator are simply reselling server space maintained by someone else.
It’s refreshing to find a host that runs their own servers. How can you tell? They offer services like co-location. Co-location means your servers are physically located in someone else’s facility. This can be very helpful because the attention and time required to keep servers running smoothly is pretty significant.
AISO.net (Affordable Internet Services Online) offers co-location services as well as the basic hosting accounts common to the rest of the green web hosts listed on this site.
December 21st in Green Web Hosts by Tom . Leave a comment.
Since we dropped all affiliate links from the site, we are a lot more free (and objective) to be completely honest about all of our green web hosting reviews. Accordingly, we have updated the Top 10 Green Web Hosts list to more accurately identify the greenest of the green.
The top 10 list is compiled by evaluating green web hosts on a number of parameters including responsiveness to customers, features, price, website quality and environmental friendliness.
December 20th in Blog by Tom . Leave a comment.
The Greenwashing Blog has joined the Hippie Network. The network is a fast growing collection of eco-blogs that discuss relevant, helpful and interesting green news. The Greenwashing Blog brings a reputation for looking at eco-claims with a critical eye.
Do you have a popular eco blog? We still have some limited room in the network for interesting blogs that focus on the environment. Contact us to start a discussion.
December 18th in Knowledge Base by Tom . Leave a comment.
Web hosts are starting to claim that their web servers are “optimized for energy efficiency”. Although this may be true, this is a hard claim to dispute because standards have not yet been set for efficient operation of web servers. However, if you know something about servers, these things could help you determine if a web host has truly optimized their servers to run on the least amount of energy.
The type of server matters. Blade servers tend to be more efficient because often components that consume the most energy can be shared such as fans and motherboards/processors.
The age matters. Servers are like any other technology, they become outdated as soon as they ship from the factory. Unfortunately, web hosts make money after servers have been paid for, so there is built-in economic incentives to keep servers well past their prime.
Hard drive and storage types matter. Solid state hard drives (not often found in web hosting applications) consume much less energy because there is no spinning disk.
Power supply matters. How the host configures their power supply can increase or decrease energy consumption dramatically.
Cooling systems matter. As server farms or data centers become more advanced, more efficient methods of cooling the massive heat generated by servers advances as well. From liquid nitrogen to water cooled, the method of cooling matters. Choose hosts located in colder climates. This takes less energy from the grid to cool controlled atmospheres.
Ask your host about these things, and make them part of your web host evaluation.
December 16th in Green Web Hosts by Tom . Leave a comment.
When searching for more green web hosts, we found this page from 1and1. However this is mentioned on the bottom of their site, clearly not a priority. They have offset their server usage with clean energy, which is the go-to solution for businesses who want to go green. Some of the top green hosts go big when they go green.
From direct experience, 1and1′s support is far below the standard you should expect from a web host. Our vote: pass on 1and1.
Read more about Greenwashing at The Greenwashing Blog.
December 15th in Blog by Tom . Leave a comment.
Very. We are listed by a number of impressive websites as the source for objective news and reviews of green web hosting providers. We are even listed on Wikipedia as a resource! You can help us grow and further our mission of providing objective information on green web hosts by sharing us with your favorite social networking tool (see right below this post), by subscribing to our RSS feed or by following us with twitter.
December 14th in Green Web Hosts by Tom . Leave a comment.
BounceWeb is a recent convert from conventional web hosting. They utilize clean energy credits to offset their energy use. Additionally, they claim to have tuned and upgraded their servers to use 43% less energy. Here’s what they say about their green efforts:
In their words:
“Web Hosting must be more socially responsible by improving server energy efficiency which we have done by switching all of our servers hardware to use 43% less electricity. We provide the best green wind powered web hosting in the world to keep the world beautiful.
Carbon neutral means we do not emit any carbon emissions that cause global warming that we do not clean up. Our wind powered webhosting has been revised to be completely carbon neutral.
A renewable energy credit or REC (http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/gpmarket/rec.htm) is what we purchase to offset our carbon footprint, we have partnered with the leading REC provider 3Degrees as they enables businesses and individuals to fund clean energy and carbon reduction projects through the purchase of Renewable Energy Certificates and Verified Emission Reductions.”
Visit Bounceweb
December 13th in Blog by Tom . Leave a comment.
Eco Host Reviews – your source for objective news and reviews of the green web hosting industry now has a new feature! If you run a green web host, you can now submit news and announcements for posting.
There is no guarantee that everything submitted will be posted. Anything that includes a special deal for our readers will be given preference.
If you’re ready to submit news now, click here.
