Green in Kansas: a Q&A

1&1 Internet recently launched a new green data center in Lexena, Kansas. The new facility provides space for 40,000 servers and makes it possible to have equal latency for both the East and West coasts by being in the middle of major traffic areas. The company said Kansas City is one of the safest locations to have a data center because the risk of black/brownouts is minimal. 1&1 will also be purchasing purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs)to match the electricity used at the datacenter. We talk to Mr. Thorsten Ziegler, Head of 1&1's new U.S. Data Center.

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Is 1&1's new data center in Kansas the company's biggest green project? What environment-friendly initiatives has 1&1 undertaken in the past? The U.S. data center going green is part of a global 1&1 initiative to become a fully green organization. In December of 2007, 1&1 announced that all 1&1 European centers became green with electrical power from renewable resources like wind, water or solar energy. Within one year 1&1’s green efforts savings will save over 30,000 tons of CO2. Recently, 1&1 also announced plans to build one of Europe’s largest data centers in Hanau, Germany in a former nuclear fuel facility. The new data center will provide space for up to 100,000 servers, and like all 1&1 data centers, the new facility in Hanau will be green, using electricity only from renewable energy sources.How do Renewable Energy Certificates work, and why 1&1 chose this option for going green? 1&1 will be purchasing renewable energy certificates (RECs) in cooperation with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation and is certified by Green-e. 1&1 will purchase RECs to match 100% of the data center's electricity usage. BEF funds projects that support new renewable energy projects from solar, wind and biomass and restore damaged watersheds. Revenues generated from its sales of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) directly support additional new watershed restoration and renewable energy projects.Why is Kansas City "one of the safest locations to have a datacenter?" Renowned for reliable power supply, Kansas is one of the safest locations to have a data center.Kansas City is the 2nd largest railroad hub in the U.S. with fiber lines running parallel to railroads, making Kansas City an apex of data connection (crossroads of many fiber lines between New York – San Francisco and Chicago - Dallas). The Lenexa, Kansas location makes it possible to have equal latency for both the East and West coasts by being in the middle of major traffic areas.Following are others benefits of the Kansas City location: - Not a major earthquake zone - Away from large scale weather impacts like hurricanes - Protected against by tornado by structural elements (2nd wall)Can you share some technical details about the new facility? Our 55,000 square feet facility contains 5 server rooms with a total capacity of 40,000 servers. Structural integrity is achieved by 2 sets of mason walls (each room is a building within a building) with secondary steel and concrete reinforced roofs. All server rooms are powered by two uninterruptible power supply systems, backed up by diesel generators. Three independent cooling systems provide a closely monitored environment for all servers. An access control and CCTV monitor ensure that only authorized personnel can gain access to the facility. Multiple fiber paths between our data center and transit providers ensure safe, reliable and ultrafast network connectivity.Are customers reacting positively to green initiatives? We started this green initiative because we believe it is part of our corporate responsibility, and customers are looking for green products and services today. All 1&1’s services are run from the green data center, with no premium or added cost to the customer. As a service provider, 1&1 customers can benefit from promoting their own Websites as green as well as servers.1&1 Internet is a global web hosting provider, which gets hundreds and thousands of new customers daily; from your experience, which are the fastest growing hosting markets? As the practice of buying and selling goods and services online continues to become more popular, more and more entrepreneurs are looking to the Internet as a means of starting or expanding a business. Small businesses taking to the Web is an ever increasing market, now that publishing, managing and marketing a Website has become an affordable and simple task.What can we expect from 1&1 in the coming months? 1&1 will continue to promote its green initiative, involving the customers more by developing features for the customers to promote their own green Websites. We are also looking to promote businesses that take the next step in going green from choosing green practices to actively choosing green services to run their business. Selecting a green Web host is an easy way to take the first or next step in supporting environmental efforts.