LIAM EAGLE: LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

WHIR Magazine, May 2008: The Green Issue

It wasn't long after we made the decision last year to do our green issue in May that it seemed every magazine that showed up at the office was experiencing a "green issue" of its own. Of course, we didn't create the notion, but we seem to be riding the crest of a wave of interest and attention on environmental issues, making its way into the business world.

The press releases touting "green hosting" have been rolling in, faster and faster, describing a cresting interest in environmental issues across the hosting industry. And this business has a unique relationship with environmentalism.

Hosting's biggest impact on the environment is through the consumption of energy - data centers, and the servers they contain, are an enormous draw on electrical power and, consequently, a significant producer of greenhouse gasses. But energy is quickly becoming one of the greatest expenses for hosting providers, making it possible for hosts to serve their bottom line while pursuing a more environmentally responsible business.

We're not quite at a point where there's a reliable model for building a green hosting operation, so what we set out to do with our green issue was describe the environment in the industry around green initiatives. And the way we see it, the green movement in hosting breaks down into three parts.

One is the movement itself. Driven by those twin incentives of conservation for its own sake, and conservation for the sake of the business's bottom line, a culture is building in the hosting business of organizations and outfits working to build the standards by which we will measure our "green" efforts. In our cover story on the green movement in hosting, Dennis McCafferty looks to the industry organizations and government agencies that are taking the lead in defining what we mean when we say "green hosting."

Second is the practical process of building green procedures into data center operations. Short of outright idealists, most hosting companies face certain practical limits on the extent to which they can apply efforts at conservation in their operations. Speaking to both the idealists and the rest, Wayne Epperson maps out some of the tactics for building efficiency into the data center, and reveals some of the remarkable savings achieved this way.

Third is the message. Whether hosts are altruistic or pragmatic in their efforts at conserving energy, they face a decision about the sort of message they intend to bring to customers. In a piece on marketing the green message, I talk to hosts about the potential pitfalls in dealing with a trend tied inextricably to an ethical question.

Chances are, your experience with green hosting isn't going to begin with this magazine. And I'm quite certain it isn't going to end here. But I hope that what you're holding here will serve as a roadmap to where the movement is going, and will help you to design your own plan for operating in its world.

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