Web Hosting Reviews & Ratings

February 02, 2009

What Color is Your Web Host?

Anyone familiar with the industry realizes that the number of web hosting companies spans into the tens of thousands.  Even more complicated is the different types of services that range from shared and virtual to dedicated and managed.  The gimmicks don't stop there as companies are desperate to stand out from the rest of the crowd.  Some tag their packages as PHP or cheap hosting while others go off the deep end.  It isn't uncommon to run across a provider that claims to specialize in Christian hosting or even web hosting for pet owners.  Believe it or not, the ridiculousness continues on.  There is however, another emerging type of web hosting that isn't all that difficult to grasp and actually appears to be right on time - green hosting.

Web Hosting Has a Large Carbon Footprint

You can get a good understanding of green hosting when considering the daily operations of the typical data center.  These facilities are consuming tons of energy to keep the servers functioning and cool at the same time.  The eco-friendly approach to this problem is designing data centers that run off alternative energy sources, such as solar or wind power.  This method helps companies to be more energy efficient and reduce carbon emissions at the same time.  The emergence of green hosting as encouraged other prominent companies to make efforts towards reducing their carbon footprint.

Are all Green's Created Equal?

This environmentally conscious revolution is a wonderful concept but it does raise the question, "are these companies truly running an eco-friendly service or just blowing a bunch of green smoke?"  After all, building a data center that runs entirely on alternative energy is a project that would cost millions of dollars to complete.  Because funds have to come from somewhere, the customers are likely to get hit in the pockets the hardest.  The truth is that many green hosting companies are simply reducing their impact on the environment rather than going totally green.  For example, they cut back on waste paper and even go as far as using heat from the hardware to warm their offices.  Another method involves purchasing renewable energy credits.

Often referred to as carbon offset credits, renewable energy credits are designed to support emission reduction projects.  In return, these projects are required to either prevent or remove an equal amount of carbon dioxide from the air.  While this is a valiant effort, doe it really constitute as green hosting or is it just another gimmick?  Are these companies green or simply draped in camouflage?  Are customers actually willing to pay a much steeper price just to do what appears to be the right thing?   As far as we are concerned, the jury is still out on all three questions.

Whatever your feelings are on the situation, green hosting is one of the many initiatives to help re-route the earth from what some say is an inevitable path to Global Warming.  Sure, some companies are banking off the trend while others are truly committed.  For those who are, RECs or not, you would have to agree that a significant difference is being made.

Tags: web hosting companies,  virtual hosting,  Shared Hosting,  Managed Hosting,  green hosting,  dedicated hosting,  cheap hosting