Ebookers.com

"Our business is based on availability – the availability of discounted air fares and hotel reservations, as well as the availability of the internet service itself. To handle this kind of traffic and this kind of growth, we required a failsafe and properly managed hosting service with a guaranteed high-bandwidth connection to the internet."

Vinod Singh, Chief Information Officer at ebookers

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One of the earliest companies to pioneer online travel as a viable business model, ebookers.com has become Europe's largest online travel agency, with some 20 per cent of the rapidly growing internet travel market.

Challenge

Since its flotation in November 1999, the company has established operations in 11 European countries and witnessed tremendous demand. In 2000 alone, ebookers.com recorded more than 25 million visits to its web sites – 10 times the number as in the previous year.

"Our business is based on availability – the availability of discounted air fares and hotel reservations, as well as the availability of the internet service itself," says Vinod Singh, Chief Information Officer at ebookers. "To handle this kind of traffic and this kind of growth, we required a failsafe and properly managed hosting service with a guaranteed high-bandwidth connection to the internet."

Solution

With security in mind, ebookers purchased its own servers and placed them in the protected environment at a TelecityGroup data centre in London.

The data centre was built with redundancy throughout, including two diverse power feeds into the facilities and into ebookers' server cabinets, back-up generator power, and redundant air-cooling and humidity-control systems. Access to the facility is controlled through biometric identification, 24-hour manned security, restricted floor access, closed-circuit television, and motion sensors.

One of the only top-quality hosting providers with its own internet backbone network, TelecityGroup also provided ebookers with connectivity to the internet via multiple, diverse, high-capacity DS-3 (45 Mbps) circuits linked to TelecityGroup data centres and peering points throughout Europe.

“What clinched our decision to opt for TelecityGroup was the security of the service. We couldn't afford to take chances with the lifeblood of our business," Singh says.

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