Dublin-based data hosting firm Hosting 365 has told siliconrepublic.com that it has in the past year invested €2m to upgrade its facilities to include a blade server environment and virtualisation technologies.
Hosting 365 managing director, Stephen McCarron, explained: “A year ago we took a risky outlook on what is required and we decided to build a cloud platform. We had the idea that hosted services can be delivered entirely across a virtualised environment, but bespoke for each customer.
“It cost us €2m to build out the high-end carrier-grade infrastructure because it required increased processing power and data storage.”
McCarron said the company signed key deals with HP for the blade servers and VMware for the virtualisation software.
“It effectively allows us to put server technology into 60sq ft of space that traditionally would have demanded 6,000sq ft.”
McCarron explained that with the new blade technology Hosting 365, which provides services to the Department of Social Welfare as well as Cityjet and Carphone Warehouse, is able to use just 40pc of the power consumption.
“As a result of the virtualisation software we can get an 85pc utilisation of available servers at any one time, whereas in the past it was a 10pc utilisation.”
McCarron said that the new investment will enable Hosting 365 to proceed with its vision of providing Hardware as a Service (HaaS), which will run in parallel with the growing trend of Software as a Service (SaaS).
“For example, the Department of Social Welfare may see a 10pc utilisation of its web servers during the year but right after Budget Day it could jump to 100pc. The Department can upscale their server requirements in line with demand without having to panic,” McCarron said.
By John Kennedy
