We’re big fans of Opera at IntoMobile, so we’re happy to hear that they’re doing their part towards making the planet a cleaner place to live by opening up a data center in Iceland that runs on 100% renewable energy. Opera, for those who have yet to hear of them, and it’s possible since most people use either Google’s Chrome or Mozilla’s Firefox browser, makes a small application called “Opera Mini” that intercepts your request for a web page, sends it to a server in a far away land, renders the page on said server, compresses said page by up to 90%, and then sends it back to your device. In countries where data is expensive, or 3G coverage is highly limited, Opera Mini is like a gift from heaven and up until very recently I’ve been using it as my main browser. Living in Finland enables me to have near ubiquitous 3G access, and the processor in my Apple iPhone 4 has more than enough horsepower to deal with the complex sites that comprise the internet of today. That still doesn’t stop me from recommending it.
“This move makes sense in multiple ways. The environment wins by the switch to green energy and cooling methods. Meanwhile, our finance department is happy with the savings we make by locating these servers closer to the natural resources on which we rely,” said Jon von Tetzchner, Co-founder, Opera Software. “The mix of clean energy, skilled IT workers and fast Internet connections to international hubs lets us provide the best service for our European, Asian and African users of Opera Mini.”
Not that Opera has these sorts of data centers all over the world, mainly to reduce latency, so American Opera Mini users don’t have to wait for their browser to go half way around the planet and back again. Of Opera’s over 71 million Opera Mini users, 20 million will be doing less harm to the planet.
Thumbs up. Green thumbs.