Greenhost

Greenhost was founded in 2001 by Mart van Santen and Sacha van Geffen. They developed a web hosting platform that was much more sustainable and energy efficient than the competition. Since then, the company has become a frontrunner in the webhosting field, offering a fresh approach to hosting, with a commitment to sustainability, a free and open internet and advanced security, and its own solutions, software, partners, projects and ideas. Find out more: www.greenhost.net.

Challenge

“Back in 2007 we were looking for a long term colocation partner with a focus on sustainability. There weren’t many about in those days,” says Mart van Santen. “Our primary concern was to offer renewable energy to customers, and we were also looking for energy-efficient design and operation – most facilities back then used huge amounts of cooling equipment. Other critical factors included carrier-neutrality and a strong security policy. “

Why EvoSwitch

EvoSwitch ticked all these boxes. As well as offering power generated from renewable energy, EvoSwitch was one of a handful of colocation providers offering optimized airflows and electricity powerflows. “We like working with innovative companies and there was a good match with EvoSwitch from the outset,” says Mart. “In my view, EvoSwitch is still very innovative – they invest a lot of time in innovation and research rather than buying things off the shelf.”

Solution

EvoSwitch became Greenhost’s core infrastructure provider, and today Greenhost hosts over 20,000 customer websites with EvoSwitch, offering a range of starter and premium hosting packages as well as one-off cloud-based solutions. Today EvoSwitch has a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.2 with potential for an even lower figure, which matches Greenhost’s exacting energy efficiency standards. Greenhost  uses a backup facility in Rotterdam and is constantly on the lookout for new sustainable hosting partners, but there are no plans to change the core provider relationship. Greenhost runs connections to the AMS-IX and NL-IX fibre ring, and to IX Reach. Routers are located in the IX Room so that it’s possible to expand or interconnect there as required.

Results

Mart van Santen summarises the working relationship as follows: “EvoSwitch is not for everybody – lots of our customers don’t really know about the infrastructure side of things, and they are not particularly interested. But for customers that know how important good quality infrastructure is, our collaboration with EvoSwitch is a significant plus and that helps our marketing and sales effort. Unlike many service providers, EvoSwitch have improved with age, becoming more responsive and flexible, and our relationship has deepened over the years mainly due to the quality of the Account Management. We often attend EvoSwitch events. EvoSwitch knows our business and we wouldn’t think of leaving. We are proud to work with EvoSwitch and we think that works both ways.”