Case Study Softlayer
Fast growing SoftLayer happy with Amsterdam
International hosting company expects huge growth in Europe, due to explosive demand for cloud and Internal customer demand.
SoftLayer Technologies offers cloud, dedicated, managed hosting and IT solutions for businesses. It is said to be one of the largest private hosting companies in the world.
SoftLayer is strong in organizing virtual networks, and actually has network-within-a-network topology. The network customer's hire look like private networks, but are technically embedded in the SoftLayer datacenter structure. Customers can operate their network under their own name or under the flag of SoftLayer. Network administrators can access servers via VPN over carriers that are not connected to the company's public network. This totally segregates public and private traffic, and makes it impossible for external parties to access server functionality. Administrators can also securely transfer data and manage servers without sacrificing public bandwidth to their sites.
The Dallas, Texas-based Company said it serves 23,000 customers worldwide, half of which are outside of the U.S. It has $330 million in annualized revenue and is profitable from 2008 onwards.
In November 2010, SoftLayer merged with The Planet making SoftLayer today one of the largest non-listed multinational in the web hosting world.
AMS-IX important to SoftLayer
"SoftLayer plans to invest a total of 100 million Euros on their Amsterdam European hub", said Jonathan Wisler, just appointed as General Manager for SoftLayer in Europe.
The nearby Amsterdam Internet Exchange was one of the main technical reasons for the choice of Amsterdam as our main European hub and headquarters. SoftLayer took a 20GE connection with the exchange. Mr. Wisler explains: "Working with Europe's biggest Internet Exchange was really a pleasure for us. They understood our needs very well in the beginning as we were exploring the Amsterdam option. The main reason to choose AMS-IX is for our customers to access faster data."
SoftLayer said it is investing 55 million Euros already in its first European data center in Amsterdam, which opened in early November 2011 at the Amstel Business Park. The new facility started with a capacity to house 16,000 servers.
SoftLayer chose The Netherlands for a number of reasons, according to Mr. Wisler: "It's one of the most advanced countries in network infrastructure as well as in skills and knowledge. As we are currently recruiting for a 25 plus team, the Netherlands offers candidates that are well educated and well experienced. But we didn't choose Amsterdam just for technical and human resource reasons. We also chose it for the well-developed business access to other countries and markets. Strategically, we have installed our equipment very close to the most important Internet exchange in Europe - AMS-IX."
Geeks for geeks
We have a motto at SoftLayer, "Challenging but not overwhelming. We want to build a strong team culture, because we are heading for strong growth together. SoftLayer is still a start up at its core, so we wanted to be in a city where the entrepreneurial culture is strong."
SoftLayer is doing the technical infrastructure. It deploys a 10Gbps network from 20 carriers worldwide including directly with Equinix, and customers of the like of Time Warner. SoftLayer provides private network connectivity for secure remote access through VPN gateways with various Carriers, transport and transit providers, all with a 10 Gbps connection
SoftLayer proudly tells everybody that their services are built 'by geeks - for geeks'.