Every email stored on a server uses energy. Whether it is a short message or a large attachment, it takes power to keep that data alive. Multiply that by millions of users, and the energy cost becomes significant.

Storage means power consumption

Datacenters consume a growing share of global electricity use. For instance, according to a 2024 report by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), US datacenters are expected to reach up to 12% of the national power supply by 2028 in the United States. Datacenter power consumptions is predicted to increase similarly in developed nations.

To keep your email system efficient, you and your staff can follow these tips:

• Set sensible quotas: Assign mailbox limits between 500MB and 2GB for regular users. Heavy users may need more, but limits help prevent overload.
• Monitor usage: Use cPanel’s “Disk Usage” tool to track mailbox sizes and spot accounts that need cleanup.
• Clean regularly: Delete old messages, empty spam and trash folders, and remove large attachments.
• Use filters and forwarders: Set up rules to manage incoming mail and forward messages to reduce clutter.
• Send links: sending links to files in OneDrive, Dropbox, and Google Drive avoids file duplication, reduces mailbox size, and relieves network congestion.

User-level vs organizational level management

These tips above are aimed at user level management. GDPR-compliant businesses use archiving and “rules-based” policies to control email storage. Also, GDPR-compliant businesses exercise controls to prevent indiscriminate or malicious email deletion. So, even if you are a small organization, you should have a written policy to set out management procedures.

Microsoft 365 excels at archiving an rules-based managment and it is the email service of choice for “mailflow”, archving, and advanced functions like litigation locks. cPanel web servers can still achieve good housekeeping results. Admins can manage email accounts centrally. Also, users can:

• Manually move old emails to archive folders.
• Use an email client like Outlook or Thunderbird to automate archiving.
• Admins and ComStat.uk can provide custom scripts or cron jobs to archive or delete old emails based on age.

If you are a cPanel web server admin, you can refer to this article for more information about your cPanel email service.

Individual users can make a real difference by:

• Unsubscribing from unwanted newsletters and mailing lists.
• Monitoring spam and deleting it promptly.
• Avoiding digital hoarding—don’t keep every email forever.

Regular attention like this reduce the load on servers, cuts energy use, and helps data centers operate more sustainably.

Managing email storage is more than just good housekeeping — it is a step toward better performance, lower costs, and a greener internet. In reality, cleaning up your email might not save that much energy. However, if you left all your snail mail on the kitchen table for 15 or 20 years, you would have a mess to sort out. By setting limits, cleaning mailboxes regularly, and adopting smart habits, you can do your part to keep your inbox—and the planet—healthy.

About ComStat.uk: Internet Service Provider Comstat provides IT support, web hosting, and media services including website design, Microsoft 365 setup, and audio/video production, serving businesses across Denbighshire, North Wales and Wirral from Ruthin, and Lancashire and the Northwest from Bolton.

 UK businesses like yours are responsible for protecting personal data under statutory GDPR provisions. If your domain name is registered through a third party (like a web designer or IT supplier), and you do not have direct access to your domain name’s control panel, you do not know that your registration details are accurate. For instance, when you bought a domain name, were you even thinking about legal title?  This can lead to compliance issues.

Ownership versus administrative control

There are good reasons why owners do not have daily access to their domain name. Domain names are like phone books which direct traffic to the services you need to operate. For instance, email might operate from Microsoft 365, and your web site operates from a server based at Canary Wharf, London. Your domain name controls all of your online services, and inadvertant edits to your records could catastrophically disrupt your services. Even a missing period or full stop could take your IT services down. So, unless you are expert in one of IT’s trickiest technologies – DNS – you need to rely on someone who is.

This is why, as businesses grow, owners delegate administrative conduct of their domain names to one or more IT professionals. In this situation, the owner stil owns their domain name, but an IT expert can manage the domain name from their own registry agencies. In a way. This allows for rapid intervention in the even of outages or equipment or datacenter failures.

Most owners give administrative custody to consultants at Registrar level, but do not secure their overriding rights at Nominet. This is a critical risk.

However you manage or delegate your domain name, you need a back door so that you have a trump card to change your admin, or transfer the domain name to another registrar. It is not really a matter of trust. An IT supplier might fail. A malicious hacker might gain access to your domain name with the intention of holding you to ransom. It is a matter of security, and therefore GDPR.

Nominet provides independant access to owners

Nominet is the not-for profit organistation which governs the operation of .uk domain names – about 10 million domain names at time of writing. You can buy directly through Nominet, however Nominet prefers to delegate daily conduct of new registrations, transfers and renewals to registrars like GoDaddy, TuCows, Enom, OpenSRS, Joker.com and many more. You probably have not heard much about Nominet and that is a tribute to its well regarded behind-the-scenes operations worldwide.

You probably had an email from Nominet when you bought your domain name asking you for some information. In most cases, we find that this email is ignored. Partly, this is because you might not know who Nominet is. Partly, this is because the domain name bears such an insignificant cost, the effort to seal loopholes seems pointless. 

Access Nominet Online Services here.

Take advantage of ownership privileges

Registering an account at Nominet helps you clarify legal title and other information that might not have been properly recorded at point-of-sale. For instance, Nominet might list you as owner because you had to use your name and address to get a credit card to work. However, the domain name should really be the property of a limited company. Owner information is legally binding, so seemingly small details at point of sale can cause problematic and costly issues at law in future.

Also, although you might need to delegate daily management of your domain names to an IT expert (unless you have a professional IT department), you can still exercise control as owner via your Nominet account. If you do have this kind of control, then your IT experts can transfer your domain name to other registrars who might provide better tools for DNS features that you need. Or, if someone hacks your registrar account and hijacks your domain name, you can resort to Nominet to recover control. 

This security is overlooked to a worrying degree. Even organizations that puport to be fastidious about IT policy and GDPR rarely act to secure the one IT asset which can cause catastrophic damage to all online services instantly if compromised. 

Nominet Online Services

Nominet has a facility that protects your global ownership for .uk domain names – Nominet Online Services.

Nominet’s online portal allows you to associate domain names that you own with your Nominet account which provides a haven of last resort in situations where a supplier fails, or a malicious entity attempts to hijack ownership of the domain, or other force majeur problems happen.

By associating your domain name with your own Nominet account, you can manage your data directly and ensure it is handled in line with GDPR requirements. Really, GDPR is not about penal legislation. Rather, GDPR is a framework to help you document what is common sense in the first place.

This kind of control is essential for business continuity and peace of mind. Access Nominet Online Services here.

Take Action

If  you own a .UK domain name, you can associate it with your Nominet account. This gives you full control over your domain and ensures you are protected. Access Nominet Online Services here. This service only operates for .uk domain names, so you could not include a .com domain name in your Nominet protfolio. .com and other domains use other tools to “harden” ownership, and we can give you advice about this if you need to follow this up.

About ComStat.uk: Internet Service Provider Comstat provides IT support, web hosting, and media services including web design, Microsoft 365 setup, and audio/video production, serving businesses across Denbighshire, North Wales and Wirral from Ruthin, and Lancashire and the Northwest from Bolton.