Powered by renewable energy
Our global operations are powered entirely by renewable energy. Our AISO.net owned data center uses 100% renewable on-site and locally generated solar power, as certified by Green-e, and our partner U.K. data center uses green-sourced power as specified by E.ON and as regulated by Ofgem.
Finding the balance between performance and environmentally friendly design
Even renewable energy is precious - so the next step in the process is to ensure that use of that electricity is also kept to an absolute minimum and used most efficiently. This starts with energy efficiency at our own data center and server level. We cycle out old hardware as newer, more efficient technologies come to market. When shopping for new hardware we look to strike the right balance between performance and environmental impact once the hardware is beyond its useful life (about 10 years). We were early adopters of SSD technology and offer SSD-based hosting plans using a mixture of high-performance yet efficient CPUs and an all-SSD storage solution.
At a data center level, our data centers are highly efficient with leading PuE (Power Usage Effectiveness) ratios, thanks to use of energy efficient technologies such as cold aisle containment, free cooling, variable set point control, high-efficiency power-supplies, and automatic sensors on facility lighting. We have multiple temperature sensors to be able to control our cooling systems and depending on outside temperature (from our weather station), variably raise and lower cooling set points as high as possible without effecting the data center equipment. We use hyper-converged virtual servers to ensure that we make the most efficient use of hardware, reducing the number of servers required to service our customer base. The PuE of a data center is the key figure that shows how green a data center actually is. Our USA based data center PuE is 1.10 and the UK data center is 1.3, where as most data centers in the US according to the EPA have PuE’s of 2.0 to 3.0. Our USA data center WuE (Water Usage Effectiveness) is 0 L per kWh. According to a US Department of Energy report, it takes about 7.6 liters of water on average to generate 1kWh of energy in the US, while the WUE of an average data center uses 1.8 liters of water for every kWh it consumes. Data centers with a WUE of 0.2 L/kWh or less use less than one cup of water for every kilowatt-hour delivered to servers.