Green Hosting - What impact does virtualization have?

Quite a few folks have written in asking just "how green" our hosting is. To us, thinking about the huge data centers, n++ redundant power, cooling, and everything else that is necessary to run a world class facility we get a kick out of realizing just how much virtualization, and the ability to consolidate workloads really has in conserving energy.

We've created a Green Hosting page on our site, where we hope to have more information as we begin to put data together. Here's a start:

The amount varies across the United States based upon the methods eachutility uses to generate electricity (coal, gas fired, hydro, solar).In California where our primary data center is located, 1 kilowatt ofelectricity generates approximately .8 pounds of carbon dioxide.

The average, sustained power draw of one of our host server isapproximately 158 kwh/month, or 126.4 pounds of carbon dioxide/month.With the average consolidation ratio in our plans, using our servicesaves approximately 3,033 pounds (or 1.5 tons) of carbon dioxide permonth.

Keep your questions coming.. and thanks for doing your part to "host green."

Thanks,
the Host Virtual Team