British data centres slow to adopt the EU code of conduct

- Memset Becomes First British Hosting Company To Sign Up -

Dedicated server & managed hosting provider, Memset, already the UK's first Carbon Neutral® hosting company, has today become the first Web hosting company in Britain to sign up to the European Code of Conduct on Data Centre Efficiency.

Kate Craig-Wood, Managing Director of Memset said: “The Code provides businesses with a sensible, practical and easily applicable set of best practices to improve efficiencies, minimising the environmental impact of data centre operations as well as having beneficial effect on the bottom line.  To see so few organisations embracing and applying the Code of Conduct is disappointing, even a little odd given that it is simple, free and helps them save money!”

Craig-Wood believes British operators are slow to adopt the EU Code of Conduct as it’s seen as the first step to the data centre industry becoming regulated. “Although data centres may not be targeted by regulation, they will most certainly be affected by them; it’s the inevitable outcome of the intensifying focus on energy consumption.  Whether you view this as a good thing or not, you need to start planning for it very shortly.”

For Memset, signing this agreement as a participant means that they commit to periodic energy reporting and implementation of certain practices from the Best Practice guide.

Digital Europe (formerly EICTA) has already committed the European Union's ICT sector to reducing its own carbon emissions by 20 percent by the year 2020.

Craig-Wood believes “That the goal to reduce the ICT sector's emissions by 20% in 10 years is very achievable, if not a little too cautious. By implementing the best practice included within the EU Code of Conduct, most data centres would see a measurable improvement in their energy efficiency.  The challenge now is how to migrate applications off old servers and out of inefficient buildings onto vastly more powerful, in terms of work-per-Watt, modern servers in newer, more efficient data centres. Consolidating the number servers and data centres is going to be key in achieving these reduction goals."

Memset has become an exemplar in the industry, by being open and honest about how they operate and sharing their efficiency best practices with a view to improving the industry's energy-efficiency as a whole.  The EU Code of Conduct takes this one step further and provides a measurable data pool to help advance best practice thinking which is one of the main reasons the web hosts were quick to sign up.  "Anything that facilitates information sharing to improve efficiency makes business and environmental sense," concludes Craig-Wood.

The announcement comes hot on the heels of Memset's recent attainment of ISO14001 certification for its environmental management system (EMS) and ISO27001 and ISO9001. For customers, this means that their IT infrastructure at Memset is protected adhering to the highest security standards.

The list of accredited participants can be found on the EU Code of Conduct site.