Server park housed in Leaseweb’s ‘green’ data center environment
Koninklijke Joh. Enschedé has chosen to house its new virtualised server park for the IT & Consultancy division at Leaseweb, the largest business hosting provider in the Netherlands. Leaseweb houses its server park in the climate-neutral EvoSwitch data center, which complements Koninklijke Joh. Enschede’s ‘green’ policy.
Koninklijke Joh. Ensched is a family company that was founded in 1703. It has printed Dutch bank notes since 1814, produces post stamps for 60 different countries and provides both traditional and advanced digital publishing solutions for its clients. For the division IT & Consultancy, Joh. Enschedé wanted a hosting provider that could guarantee a stable network, scalability and security. The provider also needed to have sufficient specialised engineers for Joh. Enschedé IT & Consultancy to fall back on if necessary.
Business-critical applications
The qualities listed are important due to the often very large applications that Joh. Enschedé IT & Consultancy provides to its clients (Adobe, Raad voor de Rechtspraak, Mitsubishi Motors Europe and Schiphol, among others). The hosting provider also had to be acquainted with virtualisation software such as VMware and the solution had to be as ‘green’ as possible. Joh. Enschedé therefore chose for Leaseweb, which houses its server park in the energy-efficient and climate-neutral data center EvoSwitch.
Hosting for complex applications
“The applications that we build for our clients are complex, utilise the newest technologies and are therefore hosted internally,” says Edwin van Voorbergen, ICT project manager at Joh. Enschedé IT & Consultancy. “We are not a hosting company, so we have to purchase hosting facilities. We have emphatically chosen to lean on Leaseweb’s hosting expertise. They support us in the field of VMware, Microsoft and Linux. We also do not have our own public network, while Leaseweb does, and a very redundant network at that, which reduces the chances of fatal malfunctions.”
Choice for the EvoSwitch data center
Joh. Enschedé did not only choose the EvoSwitch data center (www.evoswitch.com) for its green character. “Security is also very important to us, for example, primarily because we host the JEA PLUS2 publishing portal for the Utrecht University and Adobe, but as everyone knows we also have even more security-sensitive activities,” says Van Voorbergen. “We noticed that the data center leads the market in the facilities present. The biometric security; the strictest norm for information security: ISO 27001; the cooling methods; the co-operation with TNO; the autonomous power supply; the amount of space available; the power capacity; and their climate-neutral and energy-efficient character.”
Joh. Ensched�’s environmental policy
Koninklijke Joh. Enschedé has arranged all of its processes as environmentally-friendly as possible. “Our environmentally-friendly market approach is one of the Board’s priorities on the one hand, and on the other it is one of our clients’ expressed demands,” says Lennart de Graaff, Business Unit Manager for Joh. Enschedé IT & Consultancy. “In public contract competitions, we are increasingly asked whether our services are environmentally-friendly.” Due to its green approach, Koninklijke Joh. Enschedé has been asked to develop a publication platform for Natuurmonumenten, the company produces environmentally-friendly print work for Oxfam Novib and its clients include Terra Vitalis, an organisation that invests in plantations for environmentally responsible tree planting and harvesting.
The Green Fan: the guarantee for green ICT
Until recently, it has been difficult to realise a practical environmentally-friendly ICT system. De Graaff: “We are therefore very pleased that EvoSwitch has been able to develop a hallmark of quality for ICT, comparable to the green FSC hallmark for paper, and we are proud to be able to display the ‘Green Fan’ EvoSwitch logo. For us, the Green Fan is the FSC hallmark for our ICT services. We are going to become ambassadors, encouraging our clients to use the Green Fan.”