Web hosting services and data centers maintained by them serve various purposes. They provide web hosting services, domain registration, back up services, storage services, etc. Web hosting companies have revolutionized the world! However, major inefficiencies exist when it comes to data center management. Data center management is becoming an expensive affair. Data center costs have increased significantly in the last five years. Researches show that data center cost is growing twice as rapidly as revenue. Besides cost, data center emissions are a serious drawback of web hosting services.
Data centers consume large amount of energy. Studies indicate that data centers alone consume 0.2% of the total electricity production in the world. A single data center consumes as much energy as consumed by nearly thirty thousand houses. As it consumes, so it emits! Data centers emit large amount of carbon into the atmosphere. Carbon emissions by web hosting services and its data center is a major topic of discussion amongst environmentalists. Leaving carbon footprints in air may lead to enhanced risk of global warming.
Majority of the web hosting services rely on conventional sources of energy to generate power. Facebook, a popular social networking site, was in news recently because of its new data center in Oregon utilizing coal to generate power.
Environmentalists protest against this as it may lead to huge carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Coal, oil, gas etc. have the largest carbon footprints as they burn these fuels during operation. It is advisable to use renewable energy sources for data centers' operation in web hosting services. Main renewable sources of energy for power generation are as below:
* Hydropower can reduce CO2 emissions considerably in web hosting service data centers. In this process, energy from flowing water is converted to electricity through turbines and generators. The flowing water can be derived from two sources – Storage and Run-of-river. Storage use dams. Run-of-river use turbines placed according to the natural flow of water in rivers. Hydropower emit very little CO2 as compared to the conventional sources of energy.
* Wind can also be used as a source to generate low-carbon emitting energy. Wind mills can be seen at many places. As the blades of a windmill turn, the central shaft spins a generator. Electricity is thus produced. Datacenters of web hosting services may use wind energy to generate electricity. Wind energy is the world's fastest growing energy technology.
* Geothermal energy source can also be used to generate electricity. It emits less CO2 as compared to the conventional sources of energy. Geothermal power uses natural source of heat inside the earth. Steam or hot water from beneath the earth's surface is utilized to generate electricity. This source of power generation is environment friendly and efficient.
Apart from these, data centers may also make use of biomass, solar power, and nuclear sources of energy to produce electricity. Web hosting services are facing criticism from around the world for increasing pollutants emission. Web hosting services are under pressure from environmental groups to reduce carbon footprints from data centers. Global warming is a direct consequence to high carbon emissions from data centers. It has become extremely important to reduce energy inefficiency. This, in turn, may also reduce the overall expenditure in data center management.