The Challenge
Many of EveryCity’s customers use its easy-to-scale cloud platform to host audio, video and streaming media services. Others rely on its managed, dedicated offering to house financial systems. Some take a hybrid solution – like audio social network Audioboo that uses the cloud platform to store and stream audio files, combined with a managed, dedicated service to host its secure payment system.
But whatever their business, companies come to EveryCity with clear expectations, as Managing Director Alasdair Lumsden explains: “Our customers want to be sure their websites will perform well and that there won’t be any downtime.”
To maximise availability and performance, EveryCity builds resilience into its platforms using redundant components. But the one aspect it has no control over is the power supply at the data centre housing its infrastructure. For that, EveryCity must rely on its data centre partner – which is why it turned to Interxion.
Because the Interxion data centre is cloud- and carrierneutral, it acts like a marketplace where companies that need a service can find other companies that provide it.
Alasdair Lumsden
Managing Director, EveryCity
The Solution
“Our previous provider had let us down and we’d experienced a painful power outage,” recalls Lumsden. “We couldn’t let this happen again, especially with a cloud-scale environment. So we moved to Interxion, as our research showed they had the best reputation for power uptime.”
High availability is central to the design of power supplies at Interxion’s data centres, which are equipped with a concurrently maintainable power infrastructure. The power to customers’ installations can be provided in a 2N configuration from separate generator-supported distribution paths, which offers a company like EveryCity maximum power availability.
“This robust power infrastructure gives us peace of mind,” says the EveryCity MD. “Since we switched to Interxion, power outages have become a thing of the past. In fact, in all the years we’ve been with them, we’ve had 100% uptime on both power feeds.”
Interxion’s power infrastructure also supports the high-density power and cooling demands of the next-generation servers EveryCity uses to run large numbers of virtual machines. “This capability helps us scale efficiently to keep pace with increasing customer needs,” he confirms.
Scalability matters to EveryCity: since moving to Interxion the company has grown by more than 20% year on year, requiring steady expansion of rack cabinets.
“Interxion understands the needs and challenges of fast-growing companies like EveryCity and does its best to make things easy for us,” says Lumsden. “For example, they invited us to consolidate our infrastructure into a single contiguous space to simplify its management.”
Beyond operational flexibility and expertise, Interxion data centres also provide an environment that’s designed to facilitate business relationships. It’s one of the ways EveryCity acquires new customers, as the MD explains: “Because the data centre is cloud- and carrier-neutral, it acts like a marketplace where companies that need a service can find other companies that provide it.”
The same marketplace helps EveryCity find the suppliers it needs – in particular, connectivity partners. “With such a wide range of carriers and peering points to choose from, we can build the right networks at the right price to deliver our customers’ content efficiently and with an optimised end-user experience.”
Even the location of Interxion’s London data centre helps make it easier for EveryCity to do business. The data centre is close to EveryCity’s own offices and to the company’s many customers in the Square Mile and Tech City. As Lumsden points out: “Some customers simply like knowing their data is stored not just in the UK, but right on their doorsteps.”
It’s also convenient to take customers on a tour of the Interxion data centre, which adds an extra layer of credibility to EveryCity’s solutions:
“As soon as you walk in, you can tell it’s a professionally run facility, from the security features and access controls right through to the neat and tidy cabling. With Interxion as our data centre partner, we’re confident about the future of our business.”