For those of you who may not know, Rackspace is an international web hosting company, with offices across the globe including the US, UK, Netherlands, Hong-Kong and Australia. You may be checking them out and wondering whether it is worth the money to go with Rackspace? After all they have many large clients, a serious commitment to 24/7 customer service, a claim of 100% up-time (when most companies can only manage 99%) but is the hosting worth the money charged? From our recent experience – absolutely yes – and here’s why.

EcoSwitch were a client of Rackspace until last year when we thought it would be a good idea to see if we could reduce costs by moving to another hosting provider. Unfortunately it turned out to be a false economy – although the service was cheaper, the old adage applies ‘you get what you pay for’. Only a short time after switching our site to a new hosting provider, it went completely off-line. We clicked the ‘on-line’ customer service button but no-one answered, even when it was listed as being ‘online’. We sent e-mails with screenshots of our non-existent website alerting them to our site being offline, but even those fell on deaf ears. We then phoned their offices and the call was forwarded to a personal Orange Mobile answerphone with no subsequent returned call. You can make up your own mind about the level of (non-existent) customer service. The new hosting company did eventually get back in touch and apologized profusely (hence we don’t feel the need to now name and shame them), but by this time we had already decided enough was enough.

We had, by this time told Rackspace that we were moving back to them as soon as possible. Being an on-line social enterprise ourselves, the cost of the site being down for many days was substantial and something we could ill-afford.

BACKGROUND OF RACKSPACE MANAGED GREEN HOSTING AND WHY THEY WERE CHOSEN

EcoSwitch initially migrated its website to Rackspace in 2008 to trial their new ‘green hosting’. As an ethical, green lifestyle guide, we wanted to ‘walk the talk’ and make sure that our hosting was as green as possible. A lot of companies like to be ‘seen to be green’ but Rackspace have introduced a number of initiatives over several years that have helped keep them ahead of their competition. So what exactly is ‘green’ about Rackspace’s hosting? Below is a review of some of their initiatives:

REVIEW OF RACKSPACE’S GREEN HOSTING CREDENTIALS (WELL WORTH THE MONEY!):

In terms of Rackspace’s green credentials, they have introduced a number of measures:

1. Reduced energy consumption

Rackspace have installed the latest power efficient hardware including dual-core Dell AMD Opteron low voltage processors and Intel Xeon servers. These have SFF hard drives and DDR2 memory which means that they consume considerably less power.  Reducing energy consumption is a key component of any ‘green’  hosting data-centre and is the most important criteria in our opinion. With less energy consumption, there is obviously going to be less waste of our finite energy resources and consequently less pollution.

2. Creation of energy efficient facilities

Their new data centre in Slough comprises of 55,000 square feet of net technical space and been purpose built to ensure the efficient use of energy through the use of ambient cooling technology.  This power efficient cooling technology utilises the cooler outside air temperature where possible.

3. Carbon offsetting through Tree Planting

For every new customer that takes out Green Hosting, Rackspace plants a tree to help absorb some of the Carbon Dioxide generated from the equipment used to host each new website. Rackspace have planted over 11,000 trees in the UK, filling two sites in Pembrokeshire, Wales and another in Chesham, Buckinghamshire. Their third site is not up and running where they are currently planting 1,000 trees per year. In 2011, Rackspace commenced the planting of 10,000 trees in Kenya – trees in the Tropics are particularly effective at absorbing CO2 due to their year round foliage and the ideal growing conditions.

4. Employee education and implementation of internal initiatives

Rackspace use green cleaning products, paper from sustainable sources and recycle their aluminium, paper, cardboard and plastic. They have contracted a firm called PaperRound  to make sure this happens and the local council assist with this. The success of the program led to 2,130 kg of paper and 185 kg of cans and plastic bottles being recycled saving the equivalent of 25 trees or 10,900kWh of energy!

RACKSPACE’S AWARD WINNING  GREEN HOSTING:

Rackspace don’t claim to have the total answer but their ‘green’ initiatives are in their words ‘designed to support its commitment to contributing towards the larger environmental solution’. Rackspace were in fact the first hosting company to introduce greener hosting and their plan is to continue working hard to be as green as possible by introducing more initiatives.

In recognition of their efforts towards the environment, the prestigious Green IT Magazine awarded Rackspace ‘Green IT Operator of the Year’ award in 2010 and the Green ‘Team of the Year’ award in 2011. These awards provide a benchmark by which IT companies are measured in terms of their environmental performance. They reward companies that run energy efficient operations or are particularly good at sustainability communications – for example, making staff, customers and the supply chain more aware about green issues, initiatives, products and lifestyle products. Readers selected Rackspace from some 75 different entries.

WHAT OTHER FACTORS DID ECOSWITCH LOOK FOR IN A HOSTING COMPANY?

1. A DEDICATED SERVER – MORE SECURE AND 100% UP-TIME

Back in 2008, EcoSwitch asked for a dedicated server to ensure that we had 100% up-time and didn’t share with anyone else (apparently more secure). Both of these factors were very important to us. Even 1% downtime would cost EcoSwitch a fortune with customers being unable to switch to greener products and services.

The reason Rackspace are able to guarantee 100% uptime is because they have back up power generation in the event of power cuts. Similarly, they have informed us that they have never had a breach of security on any of their client’s websites since they commenced hosting operations. This is due to their formidable team of security specialists and their list of high profile clients whose privacy can not be compromised under any circumstances.

2. REPUTATION, TESTIMONIALS AND CLIENTS

It goes without saying that it is important to get client testimonials before switching to a new hosting provider. Rackspace have plenty – 170,000 customers globally to be exact as well as an impressive list of large corporate clients and organisations including Domino’s Pizza, the MOD, GoCompare and the  consumer ‘Which?’ Magazine.

3. A HIGH LEVEL OF CUSTOMER SERVICE

Enjoy customer service teams that can help you with any technical query 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days per year. As a Rackspace customer, you can go onto their website and chat with a live assistant at any time, you can raise a ticket online and they will answer your query without delay, you can get through to them on the phone anytime and can always email them if required. There are no long queues and they pride themselves on a the best service possible.

From experience, when an individual’s work depends upon the website and the internet, there is nothing worse than a website going down, being unable to send e-mails and being unable to get in touch with the website hosting provider to resolve the issue. Rackspace have got the service thing sorted. Just check out their website! They certainly give a strong sense that they truly care about their customers.

4. THE COST OF RACKSPACE CLOUD AND MANAGED HOSTING PACKAGES:

Rackspace’s ‘cloud’ hosting package is immensely popular with prices starting from £65 per month (prices as at 02/03/2012) the last time we checked (should be very affordable for small business) but if you are a medium to larger sized business or just want the best quality hosting you can get, go for their dedicated managed servers which are the Rolls-Royce of green hosting products starting from £598 per month.

There are other companies out there like Heart Internet, Fasthosts, the EcoHost and a few others that we researched, but they aren’t backed by the same quality or level of customer service, uptime and reliability as our friends at Rackspace. Thank goodness our website is back in safe hands and we recommend them highly to you and so do two other comparison services – the Which? magazine and Go Compare.

To enquire about Cloud Hosting products, visit Rackspace’s green hosting in the cloud.

To enquire about Managed Hosting, visit Rackspace’s managed green hosting page.

To enquire about Dedicated Green Server Hosting, visit Rackspace’s dedicated server hosting page.

Posted under Articles, Computer & Internet

The micro-world of technology is everywhere – it’s a fact. Gizmos and gadgets are getting smaller and smaller, more compact, and, thank goodness, more energy efficient. Once upon a time, if you wanted to take your mobile phone out-and-about on business, then a week spent at the gym buffing-up the strength needed to carry its battery holdall would seem a necessary preliminary. Nowadays its all a little bit more futuristic: there are mobile phones which can fit around your ear, personal planners that will peek out your top pocket, and now there’s a very modern, waste-conscious laptop that can fit in the palm of your hands!

Fit-PC 2 has declared to the technological world that it is ‘the first ultra-low power, full-function computer, with the performance of a standard desktop PC but requiring just 10W max to power it’. This, on average, equates to an energy saving of around 90% when compared to traditional operative laptops. It is no surprise then to see that the product has already received an energy star rating.

The PC unit itself is no bigger than the mouse you need so you can navigate your way across the few inches worth of visual screen. However, the fit-PC 2′s size is the largest factor for its energy saving secret. The entire unit measures in at 10 x 11 x 3cm, which is about the size of a floppy disk or an overly confident drinks coaster. But it is thanks to this ‘revolutionary’ economy of scale that, plain and simple, your new fit-PC can be powered using less energy than an energy-saving light bulb. Which is no small detail!

What is most reassuring about this little laptop is that it still can stand tall with the big kids. The unit is fitted with an Ultra-Low Power Intel Atom Z510/530 Processor, with 1Gb of DDR2 RAM. The unit runs 4 USB ports as well as a mini SD card slot, so uploading photos will be a doddle. And, best of all, if you’re worried about straining your eyes from squinting at the small screen all day long, you can use the line in/line out audio and DVI port to plug it into a larger monitor and run it alongside a wireless keyboard.

Perhaps the only real thing to modify with the fit-PC 2 is how we can see it fitting in with our daily lifestyle. Since the launch of the notepad and then its ever-active sister, the netpad, there have been increasing numbers of tiny laptops popping up in most public spaces – on trains, taxis, coffee house, parks – their versatile applications, small and lightweight size, and practicability edges them above the rest.

The fit-PC 2 has gone that step further. What we can expect to see now are crisp packet sized laptop cases being toted by media professionals throughout the city, and an over excited market, eager to cut their energy waste in order to be the lowest, most eco-friendly laptop out on the market. And right now, the title of Greenest laptop also belongs to the Smallest – introducing the fit-PC 2.

Source: www.fit-pc.co.uk

Posted under Articles, Computer & Internet, Eco Reviews

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The mainstream media and the blogosphere are not opposites, neither are they parallel? They are intertwined and recycle each others content. EcoSwitch is an example of what tries to straddle the spectra by relaying relevant content and presenting in-house opinions on matters that matter. What makes blog voices a strong contender for the attention of information addicts is a combination of independent writing and their focus on specific issues and thereby attracting interested individuals to their stream of posts? The quality is varied of course but the qualitative contributors in the environmental blogotope are many. And one thing that they manage to do quite well is sift through the mass of information already on the internet, compiling a selection to cater to every taste.

One good example -that can be said to quite literally focus on taste- of the redundancy of information -in the sense that the internet offers many paths to the same resource- is the recently set up Price of Meat - Getting serious about Meat and Global Warming (click here to check it out). Below we have listed some of the more recent posts we find particularly interesting:

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10 Popular Studies on Meat and Global Warming for Anyone on the 19th of February 2009

This is a useful post for illustrating meat’s carbon footprint to different people. Do you like exotic food? Know a Prius or SUV owner? Don’t plan on going veg anytime soon? There’s something for everyone. Hopefully, at least one of these ten studies will help you or someone you know to consider eating less meat. Read on here

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Germany‘s Environment Agency: Eat Less Meat to Help the Planet on the 15th of February 2009

Retrieving and reformatting the UK newspaper The Guardian’s article Schnitzel off the menu as Germans are told to cut down on eating meat (read original here), the ‘Price of Meat’ blog offers more readers an alternative reading of the source text. Read it here.

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Eating Less Meat Could Save $20 Trillion on the 14th of February 2009

New Scientist Magazine reports that researchers from the Netherlands have concluded that cutting back on meat could save $20 trillion off the cost of fighting global warming. The original New Scientist article here and the ‘Price of Meat’ blog version here.

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Examplifying it in this post, EcoSwitch is a part of this behaviour as well as offering original content. We are currently in the process of setting up contacts with Universities across the UK and thereby hoping to present recent research and opinions from qualitative writers.

Posted under Climate, Computer & Internet, Environmental News

Today, the human-computer-Internet relationship is heading towards a total integration known as Cloud Computing. The realisation of this concept will have us working directly against servers through our web browsers (incidentally the way this article is produced). What this entails is a complete dependence on Internet access, without which your computer is not even a big calculator any more. You probably think that a computer without Internet access already is ugly and stupid but think again, there are many things you used to do, oblivious of information ubiquity, possibly in a somewhat less distracted manner too.

With the advent of Cloud Computing, we are in the hands of Google and a handful of their competitors; the Internet is being appropriated by gargantuan corporations and it is done under a slogan that adds up to ‘we do it for you, the user.’ And then they will say that making a little bit of money on the side would be nice. That is probably unavoidable, the Google computer network is today the largest in the world and it just keeps growing. Those huge server farms are housed in equally huge cold-storage variety warehouses, refrigeration the number one priority. The impact on Google’s electricity bills is palpable, a good reason for founder Larry Page’s strong interest in renewable energy in general and photovoltaics in particular.

There is a motto at the core of the search engine empire; it used to be DO NO EVIL in big bold letters. Although a wee bit too generous and absolute an affirmation for the contemporary version of their driving force, all things considered they have kept surprisingly faithful to the early day ethos. Larry Page, when still a student at Stanford University in his mid-twenties, said ‘I am going to download the entire Internet.’ So he did, more or less. His initial approximation (‘it shouldn’t take more than week’) was a bit off the mark but Page, a naïve geek who set out to do the impossible – in a certain sense Google actually managed it with their gigantic index – turned into the humble businessman of today. He dreams of cars that drive themselves, of gadgets and techie solutions to all our problems. Sergey Brin, the other half of the Google dynamic duo, is possibly a little more extravagant and Eric Schmidt is the smooth CEO nervous venture capitalists appointed before Ad Sense started bringing in a whole lot of money. The three of them has defined areas of responsibility, striking a fruitful balance between innovation, management and money making.

For your information, an e-mail once on the Google Mail servers is allegedly never deleted even if you put it in the trash two years ago. The convenient sponsored links popping up next to your conversation will put you a click away from a company ready to satisfy obscure desires connected to the content of your text. But the implications for privacy are a subject outside the scope of this article.

All right, back we go to the main theme then.

What Cloud Computing hurts is – apart from your privacy and your computer’s independence – the environment. The Internet is a seducer in many ways and we usually think of it as having a low impact on the health of planet. We think of it as something that lowers paper use, as a way of keeping in touch with distant loved ones and a lot of other things that lowers our carbon footprint. But without the Internet, no low-cost airlines, without the Internet less computers constantly turned on, without the Internet… The list is longer than we commonly think and much more complex. As the masses hook up and perform through browser based operating systems, needless to say, this has consequences. A study, which unfortunately is completely impossible to verify, estimated the energy required to power the Internet amounts too approximately to 10% of the total US consumption. As the Internet grows to incorporate all our digital endeavours, the electricity it devours eats away at the apparent benefits. Ultimately, the blind reliance on service providers with us accepting outrageous End-User Licence Agreements, will take us spiralling away, each of us leaving yet another a long trail of silent and subtle but very, very deep carbon footprints.

Posted under Articles, Climate, Computer & Internet