Rackspace Survey Reveals Customers Will Pay Green for Green

SAN ANTONIO — Environmental responsibility is a growing concern for hosting customers, according to a recent survey conducted by IT hosting specialist Rackspace® Managed Hosting. According to the survey, 62 percent of respondents are concerned and either looking for ways to reduce the impact their company has on the environment or actively addressing the issue. The survey results showed that many customers are willing to put their money where their mouth is—52 percent of survey respondents stated that they are willing to pay five to 10 percent more for green products or service offerings rather than non-green options, and 51 percent are willing to trade five to 10 percent of server performance for lower carbon emissions.

“Although our customers responded that they would be willing to pay more and even trade some performance for lower carbon emissions, the good thing is that advances in technology seem to be filling the gap so that they shouldn’t have to make major sacrifices to address these environmental concerns,” said John Engates, CTO, Rackspace Managed Hosting. “Rackspace is taking full advantage of advances in green IT by implementing new technologies like AMD’s new Quad-Core Opteron™ processor and our new data center that will be powered by renewable energy.”

In June 2007, Rackspace announced its GreenSpace initiative, which promotes energy conservation through customer offerings, company conservation and employee education on green living.  Working with partners like NativeEnergy and The Green Grid consortium, Rackspace is diligently working toward a goal of being a more environmentally responsible IT hosting provider.  For more information on GreenSpace, please visit http://www.rackspace.com/information/events/green.php.

“It is a well-known fact that data centers and computing devices in general are heavy electricity consumers, even when they are not used actively,” said Lawrence Tam, Director of Engineering, Constellation HomeBuilder Systems.  “I fully support Rackspace’s efforts in reducing power consumption and educating the market by communicating the results of their green survey.  Not only does it make financial sense for companies to reduce overall power costs, but it helps the nation address the larger concern of climate change.”

The Rackspace survey revealed that 55 percent of respondents have taken first steps to go green through internal programs like recycling, and an additional 21 percent of respondents have taken significant steps like green vendor selection and energy conservation. Although 59 percent still believe green vendors are important, but not yet a top business priority, 75 percent of respondents would choose a green vendor over a non-green vendor if the prices were the same.

The survey also found that 45 percent of respondents believe potential carbon taxes or environmental regulation will have some impact on their business, and 30 percent of respondents think green vendors will be a central part of their business strategy in five years.

The methodology for this research involved sending an email survey to 3,800 US-based Rackspace customers.  Approximately 10 percent of survey recipients responded to the questions.  Detailed information and the full survey report can be found at http://www.rackspace.com/downloads/surveys/GreenSurvey.pdf.

About Rackspace Managed Hosting
A recognized leader in the global managed hosting market, Rackspace Managed Hosting delivers enterprise-level managed services to businesses of all sizes. Serving more than 15,000 customers in eight data centers worldwide, Rackspace integrates the industry’s best technologies for each customer need and delivers it as a service via the company’s award-winning Fanatical Support™. Through trusted relationships, Rackspace serves as an extension of its customers’ IT departments, enabling them to focus on their core business.  Since its inception in 1998, Rackspace has grown more than 50 percent a year. For more information, please visit www.rackspace.com, or call 800-961-2888.