Environmentally Friendly Options?

FriendlyPerson

Hiya there! While I am aware that by DEFAULT 99Stack is not a "green provider", does 99Stack have certain data centers or facilities that does take this more seriously than others that might does us more good than harm than other ones?

I am just looking on how I can "be involved" short of not being able to do a dan about reducing/neutralizing warming and other negative impacts to our planet as a single man shared hosting provider such as myself.

If so, could I please be advised of what they do to do so? Any related certifications if they applicable/bears any? As well as anything further if applies.

Thanks very much in advance!

Kauko_Laaksonen

I suppose it's very location dependent and that power comes from whatever source is available in that region or country. Generally speaking power from a international grid will always come from a variety of sources, but you could choose a location based on how much renewable energy is produced in that particular country.

This might be helpful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_renewable_electricity_production

FriendlyPerson

Kauko_Laaksonen Indeed that's a start however what facilities on a individual level as well? For example their PUE ratings? If they utilize more natural cooling techniques? Replace their Fluorescent Tubes with LED Tubes instead? Employ "follow me" lighting and so forth?

In short I am looking for facilities who not only uses what's there (e.g. like Canada's huge hydro supplies) but also put good faith in empowering their facilities to be as efficient as humanely possible and so forth.

Kauko_Laaksonen

That's a good question, I can't recall that I've ever seen any information about that. But I'm guessing most servers are colocated in already existing data centers. This ain't exactly AWS or M$ but 99Stack still has more locations than both of them, so they can't have much physical servers in each individual location. 🤔

I also don't expect it to be any major difference between data centers in terms of PUE or hardware in general, everyone involved want to keep the costs down, and green energy as well as low energy usage tends to be cheaper nowadays. Canada seems like a good choice, tho most locations won't fall far behind.

On average I think cold countries are better because those tend to sell excess heat to neighboring buildings. So Canada, South Korea maybe... but also warm countries which tend to use plenty of solar and wind.

I was surprised to learn that Texas use plenty of wind these days and barely no oil or coal, tho during the power outages I'm sure everything was powered by diesel. 😉

FriendlyPerson

Kauko_Laaksonen That's a good question, I can't recall that I've ever seen any information about that.

Magnus_Lind Yea that's really hard to find

Indeed to this point I just think facilities at large just don't since they don't have much if any variations in this department. I asked another supplier in mind and they flat out said they weren't in the market. There a huge difference between seeking a "green provider" verses wanting to REDUCE what's your already doing on a partical standpoints.

But as it already been said it proving to be nearly impossible to find out which facilitates are ahead in these efforts verses those who might be lagging behind/not improvising in this department.

Magnus_Lind

Yea that's really hard to find, maybe they just don't like to brag about it all day. To be fair some of the environmentalism has gone too far in my opinion. I don't think they're worse than other providers.

But my opinions aside, I think Linux have some commands to monitor power usage and that type of stats, here for instance: https://linuxhint.com/monitor_optimize_power_usage/, no idea if any of that works on virtual servers but it's worth a try. Good luck.

BrittanyCasey

Magnus_Lind Have you tried this: https://www.datacentermap.com/. That's probably all large data centers in the world, at least for colocation and many providers utilize them. It could be a good start for research and their own websites might even provide some ISO certificates over what standards they follow.

AndrewLowrance

FriendlyPerson What's worse is that many of the outspoken "green" providers isn't always as green as they claim. Old inefficient hardware is not uncommon, wind power sounds good on the paper but is in fact very destructive for the environment. Hydro ruins the climate too, but for an old dam I guess it's ok since it's already there and the nature has already adapted to it. Solar is good I suppose but works best in a warmer country.

Best bet is probably a young provider as they're more likely to utilize newer hardware. I did some research on the hardware using built in Linux commands and it seems to be relatively new stuff, tho there's still a huge variation.

Magnus_Lind

FriendlyPerson It's a shame really, I know many people care about things like that. But finding useful information is typically impossible, certificates, bald claims and "carbon certificates (what a joke)" aside.

AndrewLowrance 99Stack has always used 100% SSD's, there used to be information about that on the site before they upgraded to the new site, can't find it now tho but I doubt they switched back to HDD's just like that 😉

BrittanyCasey Thanks for the tip, that's a great site for this type of research.

FriendlyPerson

AndrewLowrance Not only that but often times it just through "Carbon Credits" rather than TRULY caring about the environment at large. I rather choose someone who for instance second hand responsibly, uses SSDs over HDDs, swap for LED lights, etc than someone who claims that they buy 3x the carbon they "use" and plant a tree for you once a month as a client to them.

BrittanyCasey data centers in the world, at least for colocation and many providers utilize them.

Indeed I wonder if that or other resources could assist in this then it may be possible to get second hand units that aren't power hogs to get the best out of it. Particularly if you can find one that incentives this by charging for the KW/h and other usage based billing. Instead of the fixated amps, drops, etc you are required to subscribe to.

AndrewLowrance

FriendlyPerson Exactly, they don't care, it's all about virtue signaling sadly. As for SSD's I think pretty much every provider use them today for reliability and performance. Same with LED lights, not only do they consume less energy and produce less heat but just plain and simple white LED lights is cheaper than old glowing light bulbs today, and typically fits in the same sockets.

nancycowart

AndrewLowrance Reminds me of transport minister Pete Buttigieg, who switched from non environmentally friendly SUV to bicycle the last half mile to work. Then pretended that he used the bicycle the whole way. Pathetic is what it is, but people don't seem to care. Shit like this does more harm than good for the environment.

FriendlyPerson

Magnus_Lind It's a shame really, I know many people care about things like that. But finding useful information is typically impossible, certificates, bald claims and "carbon certificates (what a joke)" aside.

Thank you, means a lot that you cares to reassure me that I am not the only person finding it frustrating and impossible to find the concerning information in deciding who to use, why to use them and so forth in a intelligential manner as you expressed.

Nice to know that not only this is a concern around here to the point it was very much worth bringing it up here but also knowing I am not the only person here coming to dead end wall when it comes to solid availability of sane information of the individual facilitates that powers 99Stack among providers at large. It's a very good start that this is getting discussed about in this manner so this can be made more realized. 🙂

Orson_Deforest

nancycowart Virtue signaling at it's finest 🤦

Damn, I have more respect for someone throwing trash on the ground as long as they admit they're just lazy.

Kauko_Laaksonen

Pete sums it up pretty good there, those who truly care about the environment has no need to brag about it all the time, hence they're hard to find. Then there's the virtue signaling people, people like Pete who does more harm than good, just to look good. To make it look like he cares. See this is why people don't take environmentalism seriously.

EmilyCarter1

right, you have to be environment friendly otherwise environment will not deal us as friend you can look at americatools.com and boardersguide.com. Since mankind started to evolve it is destroying his own friend named environment, when we look in history humans are destroying natural resources.