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  1. #1
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    * Fully GREEN hosting? What do you think?

    If you were a prospective client, would you consider a higher priced GREEN host vs the regular guys?

    Lately I've been considering switching to a fully renewable power source for my servers such as www.bullfrogpower.ca
    Do you think clients would recognize and appreciate the bennifits or only see the bottom line? As everyone knows, in this industry we need to come up with innovative solutions to the oversaturated surroundings. I've never seen a green host to this date unless I specifically searched for one.

    Discuss!
    Kdoubt.net - Gameing discussion, arcade, all around good fun

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by Kdoubt
    If you were a prospective client, would you consider a higher priced GREEN host vs the regular guys?

    Lately I've been considering switching to a fully renewable power source for my servers such as www.bullfrogpower.ca
    Do you think clients would recognize and appreciate the bennifits or only see the bottom line? As everyone knows, in this industry we need to come up with innovative solutions to the oversaturated surroundings. I've never seen a green host to this date unless I specifically searched for one.

    Discuss!
    I am not sure it would work with the compeditive nature of web hosting. I think the best way to succeed is just to offer great hosting and support at affordable prices or even free

    But It might be an intresting idea to try
    Snapya

  3. #3
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    Interesting take. There would be a whole new market that would appeal to this sort of thing I think. People who usually make earth concious decisions are usually prepared to pay a higher price for quality & cleanliness. This doesnt mean profit margin goes up necessarily, but rather the cost of operations goes up so that you are able to give people what they want.

    Support and servers would be no different.

    I think I'm going to make the switch to green power. I just bought the domain GreenSite.ca... lets give it a crack.
    Kdoubt.net - Gameing discussion, arcade, all around good fun

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kdoubt
    Interesting take. There would be a whole new market that would appeal to this sort of thing I think. People who usually make earth concious decisions are usually prepared to pay a higher price for quality & cleanliness. This doesnt mean profit margin goes up necessarily, but rather the cost of operations goes up so that you are able to give people what they want.

    Support and servers would be no different.

    I think I'm going to make the switch to green power. I just bought the domain GreenSite.ca... lets give it a crack.
    I fail to see how this makes you any more of a "green" company? Where do you host your servers? That page indicates wind and hydro, however Hydro is already a major supplier of energy to the local grid (what, around 25% or so? and a very cost effective one at that), so I fail to see the real benefit.

    This also isn't completely green, because what about the materials you use (eg. servers, bandwidth, cabling, office supplies, etc.)? Just comes off as gimmicky IMHO.
    Myles Loosley-Millman - admin@prioritycolo.com
    Priority Colo Inc. - Affordable Colocation & Dedicated Servers.
    Two Canadian facilities serving Toronto & Markham, Ontario
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  5. #5
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    I wouldnt go as far as to say "I'm going to use organic CAT6 cables and switches made of Sod"

    I'm saying, that where possible why not use a renewable source for powering equiptment? There is little I can do to use "Organic" hard drives and server chasis.
    I dont understand how you could fail to see any benefits. Are you aware how much power a full rack draws? You work for PriorityColo... Im sure you've got some numbers you can pull up

    Do what you can, where you can. And I fail to NOT see any real benefits.
    Kdoubt.net - Gameing discussion, arcade, all around good fun

  6. #6
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    OMG, they stole my nickname

    I agree it's too gimmicky and gimmicky isn't always good as a lot of people see right thought it. Unless you lie about things on your site there is probably no way you can convince people that you are more green than the rest. Lying is in no way good and could turn into a vicious cycle. I am completely honest with clients and never lie and they appreciate it a lot and respect me for it.
    The most effective way to host your site

  7. #7
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    Well lieing aside. Lets pretend we actually use green power. Now what? Nobodys lieing. Its not gimmicky anymore?
    Kdoubt.net - Gameing discussion, arcade, all around good fun

  8. #8
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    I think its a great idea for a niche market. I would give it a go.

    I think even if it was not that much more "greener" than a regular webhost, the tree huggers would go for it, because I think they are all crazy anyways(not saying anything bad about environmentally conscientious people, just tree huggers like PETA).

  9. #9
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    I still wouldn't buy into it, just my opinion.

    Like I said, it seems to hard to convince people that you are in fact greener than the rest. I doubt it's worth the hassle.

    But people do think in different ways and if you really think it could work, then go for it. If it doesn't cost you too much extra money to do it, then go for it. So if the money isn't an issue or there isn't much holding you back then there's no reason not do try it out. Would make for an interesting study if it works or doesn't and then figuring out why exactly and how it worked etc.

    Good luck with it though
    The most effective way to host your site

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by bullfrog
    Like I said, it seems to hard to convince people that you are in fact greener than the rest. I doubt it's worth the hassle.
    I understand your point of view, but would you not agree that its nearly impossible not to believe a Fact? If fact were that one was using fully renewable sources of energy, what is there to convince? I fail to see where hassle would be involved.

    Dont get me wrong, I know you're just playing devils advocate
    Kdoubt.net - Gameing discussion, arcade, all around good fun

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Kdoubt

    I think I'm going to make the switch to green power. I just bought the domain GreenSite.ca... lets give it a crack.

    Well please keep us up to date with how it works out.
    Snapya

  12. #12
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    I shal, every step of the way!
    Kdoubt.net - Gameing discussion, arcade, all around good fun

  13. #13
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    I know its not fully green, but we are about to start planting a tree for every new client.

    Costs about £4.50 per tree, but we are expecting the benefits to out weight the costs. Will keep you all posted on our progress....

    Matt
    * Matthew Park - Pentek Systems Limited
    * e: enquiries@pentek.co.uk t: +44(0)8458 671547

    * Broadband - Domain Names - Webhosting - Voice Over IP - (Coming soon, North East UK colocation and high spec dedicated servers)
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  14. #14
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    Infact this thread just gave me another idea.... (Matt registers treehost.net)

    Edit: It's not about going complety green, because lets face it thats just not possible in this industry at all! HOWEVER, what you can do is go about reducing your carbon footprint by putting back in to the environment what you are taking out....
    Last edited by PentekMatt; 11-30-2006 at 11:43 AM.
    * Matthew Park - Pentek Systems Limited
    * e: enquiries@pentek.co.uk t: +44(0)8458 671547

    * Broadband - Domain Names - Webhosting - Voice Over IP - (Coming soon, North East UK colocation and high spec dedicated servers)
    * Zero overselling - Dual Xeon Servers with Minimum 4Gb RAM

  15. #15
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    Make sure if you go with being a greener host, use AMD processors. They use less power to run and produce less heat.
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  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Internet54
    Make sure if you go with being a greener host, use AMD processors. They use less power to run and produce less heat.
    But the processors construction uses a TON of energy, water, oil, etc. (lookup the figures, its absolutely absurd). Does AMD have a greener manufacturing method? As that may topple the scale (same goes with the accompanying accessories like the motherboard, cpu fan, etc. ).
    Myles Loosley-Millman - admin@prioritycolo.com
    Priority Colo Inc. - Affordable Colocation & Dedicated Servers.
    Two Canadian facilities serving Toronto & Markham, Ontario
    http://www.prioritycolo.com

  17. #17
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    I remember seeing something about this on WHT before...I think the company was solarhost.com? They use solar panels for power I think.

  18. #18
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    Matt, thats a great idea! Are you targeting any land in particular? Glad this thread spurred some interest. I just spoke with the datacenter, and without converting the whole datacenter to BullFrogPower it would be impossible. Im trying to think of alternatives.
    Kdoubt.net - Gameing discussion, arcade, all around good fun

  19. #19
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    I've always colocated racks/servers and dont have any experience with something like a multiple T1 line(s). I've heard they're not very reliable? Does anyone have any experience with this? Its not really something that I can say "will this work from a marketing standpoint" because Im not really doing it that reason. Sure its a bonus, but the real purpose is cutting down on non renewable energy.
    Kdoubt.net - Gameing discussion, arcade, all around good fun

  20. #20
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    As from what I have seen from the provided links that is more of a marceting gag.

    If you would tell me you use only Opteron HE CPU versions to reduce the power from 90W to 65W that would be something I could recognize. Or use the mac mini or notebook sized servers to actually use much less power now THAT would be a benefit to the whole world.

    But changing from one source to another is JUST shifting the power needed.

    What do you do if your wind power plant stops at peak times - ever thought of that ? ;-)

    Just my 0.02$.
    Last edited by valentin_nils; 12-01-2006 at 02:54 AM.
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  21. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by valentin_nils
    But changing from one source to another is JUST shifting the power needed.
    Feel free to READ the entire topic.
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  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by porcupine
    But the processors construction uses a TON of energy, water, oil, etc. (lookup the figures, its absolutely absurd). Does AMD have a greener manufacturing method? As that may topple the scale (same goes with the accompanying accessories like the motherboard, cpu fan, etc. ).
    This just goes to show you're going to have people you can convince and people you cannot. I personally don't agree with the above statement and didn't have any of that come to mind when reading this post. I find your idea to be rather original and if marketed to the correct way, could work.

    Good luck with this.

  23. #23
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    Hey hey hey, what's all this talk about Green Hosting? We love us some greener hosting!
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  24. #24
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    Just my 2 cents... that sounds very cool and thoughtful. Oh, hmm.. exactly the opposite of what makes big hosting profits (false advertising and cramming customers on servers -- maybe they claim using fewer servers preserves energy? ;-) ).

    If you're going to offer something like that, you may want to try to broaden your offerings. Allow others to colo in your data center, target other "earth-friendly" vendors/sites -- not too sure what else you can do. Unfortunately, many of these companies probably already have increased costs as well so they may not be able to afford more expensive hosting.

    This certainly isn't the best way to get new customers, but doing what you think is right generally isn't the "best" way to make money... here in the good ole USA, you might instead lose customers for being so 'darned liberal'.

  25. #25
    I don't think they'd care...

    Maybe if it was the same price they might look at it, but I doubt it'd change their mind much.

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