Environmental Management System
With an ever-growing number of companies calling themselves “green” or “eco-friendly”, it can be difficult to know exactly what these terms mean and which companies actually fit the description. In fact, most web hosting companies who claim to offer green hosting simply don’t deliver – they just refer to themselves as a “green web host” without offering any sustainable practices to support that claim. At NetFire, we do things differently – our ISO 14001:2015-compliant Environmental Management System (EMS) reflects our commitment to sustainability and open dialogue with our clients. This article focuses on two important aspects of our EMS (PPW metrics and cold-aisle containment) and explains how they help NetFire fulfill our role as responsible stewards of the environment.
Cold-aisle containment (CAC) is an essential part of our EMS. CAC utilizes a physical barrier that separates hot and cold air, maintaining a uniform air temperature in an energy-efficient manner. In this system, hot air and cold air never mix – cold air is sealed at the front, while hot air is sealed at the back. This ensures a predictable air temperature without “hot spots”, optimizing your operating conditions while saving on cooling costs.
Contrast that approach with the inefficient conventional cooling most hosting providers use in their facilities, and you’ll see the difference. In these systems, cold air is not contained, allowing cold and hot air to mix. This often creates troublesome “hot spots” that keep your infrastructure from running at peak efficiency.
Another important metric for defining green hosting is performance per watt (PPW) numbers. Performance per watt (PPW) metrics measure the energy efficiency of a particular piece of hardware, and are the only way to reliably gauge how “green” a processor is. With our specialized low-voltage hardware, NetFire’s infrastructure delivers much better PPW numbers than hosts who use conventional server hardware; and our SSDs utilize less power than mechanical drives, too. NetFire is committed to staying on the leading-edge of sustainable technology while being completely open with our clients about how we make that happen. That’s why we’re one of the only hosting providers who publicly share our PPW numbers.
If your organization is among the growing number of companies with ecological concerns, there are numerous advantages to choosing a hosting provider with an Environmental Management System. Perhaps most importantly of all, every single ISO management system standard includes the need for continual improvement of an organization’s approach to environmental concerns. That ongoing commitment to environmentally-conscious ethics is what drives NetFire’s innovations each step of the way.