In fact, holding onto these old servers is neither economically nor environmentally sound for companies, says Memset. 

The study comes just a couple weeks after European web hosting provider Amenworld revealed the results of its study which showed that, on average, servers needlessly use 1000 kWh of energy, producing an excess of 632Kg of CO2 per server per year.

These staggering results compelled the company to launch of a new range of servers in the UK entitled Eco Range that use only half the power of conventional servers.

The company cites the example of an average £1,000 1U rack-mount server bought 3 to 4 years ago probably cost about 1,500kWh to make, in terms of materials, manufacture and distribution.

The server uses 120W at moderate load, which amounts to 1,050kWh per year, or at least 1,500kWh when data center cooling is taken into account.

Comparatively, the latest equivalent "green" servers use as little as 80W, enabling companies to save 400kWh per year in electricity for 2 to 4 times the performance.
 
Memset says it has seen significant improvement in the energy efficiency of new servers over the past 18 months, with the power requirements of basic rackmount servers cut in half while their performance has doubled. 

Therefore, by replacing more than three year old servers with modern ones companies can reduce their energy costs more than by half while doubling their workload capacity.
 
The web host also makes it a point to highlight the fact that hardware vendors are doing a good job of recycling servers, with less than two percent of servers going to land fills.

Additionally, charities such as Computer Aid (computeraid.org) refurbish and donate machines to Africa where they are put to very good and efficient use. Memset says it recently started to donate its outdated IT kit to Computer Aid International.

The company says it offers dedicated server packages based on its Miniserver technology to SMBs and enterprises around the UK.