(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Non-profit organization the Wikimedia Foundation (www.wikimedia.org), the operator of Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com), announced on Monday it has signed an agreement with Dutch data center operator EvoSwitch (www.evoswitch.com) where Wikimedia will use the Amsterdam site as its HUB for Europe.
As part of the agreement, EvoSwitch will provide over $421,000 of in-kind support for Wikimedia in the form of bandwidth and hosting services.
The Wikimedia Foundation manages eight distinct, open, wiki based free knowledge projects, including Wikiquotes, Wikinews, and Wikipedia.
The free online encyclopedia is consistently ranked one of the world’s top five most visited websites by comScore MediaMetrix with billions of page views every month.
The Foundation’s projects are currently hosted on 300 servers at a data center in Florida.
With this latest deal, the organization will install about 50 servers at the EvoSwitch site, which it will use primarily for caching and backup.
Brion Vibber, chief technology officer for the Foundation, says the environmentally friendly nature of EvoSwitch offers another advantage for The Foundation.
Earlier this year, EvoSwitch was recognized by the German Federal Environment Ministry as one of 11 energy-efficient data centers in its report of best-practices in the area of green data center initiatives in Europe, the US and Asia.
EvoSwitch is a ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certified, CO2-neutral data center. The facility has more than 30,000 square feet of floor space and a total capacity of 20 Megawatt.
“We are strong supporters of Wikimedia and their Wikipedia free knowledge project in particular,” says Eric Boonstra, EvoSwitch’s commercial director. “The Foundation’s operations coincide with the objectives of our own organization, to keep the Internet ‘open’ and stimulate freedom of expression and the transmission of knowledge via the Internet. This partnership is all the more special to us because of Wikimedia’s faith in EvoSwitch.”
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