WWF goes for green web hosting

The World Wildlife Fund in the UK (WWF-UK) is working with a new web-hosting provider to implement more environmentally-conscious technology to reduce energy consumption as well as the cost of ownership.

The conservation fund has migrated to the new hosting services for its public facing website, its web database and its developer platforms after looking for an environmentally responsible hosting solution.

The Utility Computing Service (UCS) it has selected from UK business IT services provider, Carrenza is based on a virtualised platform that reduced WWF-UK's hosting energy consumption by 20 per cent.

These energy savings are also anticipated to double in September, when WWF-UK launches a new site. And the new deal is expected to reduce annual total cost of ownership by 15 to 20 per cent.

Adrian Cockle, WWF-UK interactive production manager said: "We run a content-rich website that is vital to our UK operations, so we need a hosting solution and provider that is totally reliable."

But he added: "We chose to work with Carrenza because their UCS will allow us to reduce the carbon footprint of our operations, but also because we trust them to keep us online and deliver an excellent level of performance. The migration to the UCS platform in early July was handled so seamlessly that staff didn't realise it had happened."

The UCS environment has eliminated WWF's requirements for hardware by using a network of dedicated servers to provide the processing power and hosting capabilities needed to run its UK website over a virtual platform. This efficiency has enabled the charity to reduce its server hardware requirements by a third.

And the new hosting environment's use of virtual servers also means that the organisation's hosting infrastructure can scale to meet spikes in user demand.