Can Web Hosting Really Be Green?
I’ve seen alot of hosting companies trying to capitalize on the green movement. Now, there’s nothing wrong with being green and doing your part, we all need to. I try to do my part as an individual, but I can’t claim to be green by any stretch of the imagination, because I’m not.
But, can web hosting really be green? Really and truly?
I seriously question this. I mean, when I think of hosting, and green, the first thing that comes to my mind is power, like solar power (which I think is a really neat idea) or wind power.
So, say for example, you have a really mission critical website, you absolutely cannot afford to be down, you’ll lose
millions of dollars – per minute! if the site does go down.
Imagine this scenario. Your website goes down, so you call your hosting company, which is a green web hosting company, and they use solar power. You call support. If you’re lucky the hosting company uses old fashioned phones that don’t need electricity to work. You know the kind I mean. The conversation goes something like this:
Customer: Hi, my website is down
Support: Yea there’s no sun today. Everybody’s down.
Customer: When will it be up?
Support: Dunno. When the sun comes out.
Customer: When will that be?
Support: Dunno. That’s up to God I guess.
Customer: (Getting angry now) Well then, can I talk to God?
See what I’m getting at here?
A web hosting company really can’t claim to be green.
They can, however, take steps to do their part for the environment:
By cutting down on paper usage
Cutting back on support hours (use less electricity that way)
Recycling old server parts wherever possible and keep them out of landfills
But until technology progresses further, web hosting companies are limited. Just because they say they are green, it doesn’t mean they are.