Have you ever asked whether a website is powered by 100% renewable energy? Here’s some food for thought…
Datacentres are massive networks of computer servers, usually housed in large air-conditioned, high-security buildings. That’s where websites are ‘hosted’. Hosting means maintaining the website on a server which connects to the web, allows anyone on the internet to access it. In fact there will be at least two servers involved because a copy of the website is backed up on other servers for security reasons and to ensure 100% availability at all times.
Such is the scale and growth in digital technology that by 2020, it is estimated that the world’s datacentres will account for 3% of global CO2 emissions.
As an online business, The Gift of Cake is very conscious of the energy that is used to host our website. We selected Krystal Hosting https://krystal.uk for eco hosting our website because of their environmental credentials.
The servers managed by Krystal are wholly supplied with power by ECOtricity – https://www.ecotricity.co.uk This means their servers are powered by 100% renewable energy (from harnessing the wind, sun & sea). That’s very important to us. And we know the datacentre used by Krystal are doing a great job because of their PUE rating.
What’s a PUE rating?
PUE stands for Power Usage Effectiveness. PUE is a measure for the energy efficiency of a datacentre. It’s a ratio; basically the total amount of energy delivered to the datacentre compared to the amount of energy actually used by the computer equipment. For example, the Uptime Institute estimates that a typical datacentre has a PUE of 2.5 – that means for every 2.5 Kwh of power delivered to the centre, 1 Kwh is actually used by the equipment. Which means an awful lot of energy is wasted.
So, the lower the PUE the better. Most datacentres are aiming to achieve 1.5. Those down to 1.2 are very efficient. We’re pleased to report that Krystal’s datacentre achieves a PUE of 1.12. That’s about as good as it can be. Eco hosting at it’s best!
We don’t believe in negative thinking. Computer technology can’t be dis-invented. The internet is here to stay and it’s inevitable that it needs vast datacentres to enable it to function, which in turn allows our customers to order delicious cakes via our website.
But with positive thinking we can make sure that the operation of our website is not damaging the environment by consuming fossil fuels. 100% renewable energy combined with a PUE of 1.12 means our website is being hosted by one of the greenest hosting companies in the world. We’re proud of that. To learn about other ways we’re trying to help the environment, see our blogs on:
Pop over to our Cakespiration blog to find out about what else we’re doing to help the environment.