Kaspersky Lab, a Russian computer security company offering anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam and anti-intrusion products to a global market, was seeking a top quality hosting provider to host its website. Kaspersky required high-performance and extreme high availability internet connectivity, which is essential for ensuring anti-virus/anti-spam updates are delivered to many customers very quickly, while maintaining high quality of service. For an internet company, any downtime or delay directly affects customer, which seriously impacts Kaspersky’s bottom line. Therefore, Kaspersky required a host that provided real value; was extremely reliable, with excellent network connectivity and a quality infrastructure with excellent support.

THE ORGANIZATION

Kaspersky, based in Russia, is a computer security company, co-founded by Natalia Kaspersky and Eugene Kaspersky in 1997. The website offers a comprehensive one-stop shopping service to help customers at home, business, and government, research and buy a wide range of software, downloads and updates to suit individual and corporate requirements. Kaspersky Lab is a privately held company, headquartered in Moscow with regional offices in Germany, France, the Netherlands, the UK, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Japan, People’s Republic of China, South Korea and the USA. The company’s products and technologies provide protection for over 300 million users worldwide, with a corporate client base exceeding 200,000 companies.

WHAT WAS THE REQUIREMENT?

Kaspersky’s website acts as an e-commerce portal for Kaspersky products, as well as offering a range of downloads, including free trials, a virus scan and virus removal tools. This means the demand on the site is always extremely high as many users also download product updates simultaneously, which can put a strain on the website. Kaspersky required a hosting company with superior connectivity and bandwidth to support the constant demands on the Kaspersky website for files and virus updates. Kaspersky needed a solution that avoided downtime or network saturation to ensure always available file downloading; and optimum website performance to provide the best possible customer experience. Kaspersky derives a considerable portion of its revenue through subscriptions. An excellent customer website experience was essential to ensure subscription renewals.

Often, when there is a particular serious virus threat being publicized in the media, Kaspersky receives very large spikes in internet traffic for trial versions of its products, which are available for download without charge. To meet these demands Kaspersky required a host, which could handle the very high traffic demand generated. Kaspersky must be able to handle the many customers simultaneously downloading its products and the virus updates necessary to keep their Kaspersky software current. Customers consider their Kaspersky products mission critical to protect them from virus and malware threats on a real-time basis, keeping their own systems safe and secure.

“We needed a reliable hosting company that could meet our company requirements and support our customers, which number in the hundreds of millions.” says Maxim Shakhab, director IT infrastructure of Kaspersky Labs. “ The number of downloads and constant traffic to the site puts a strain on the hosting company, and we needed to ensure optimum speed for customer downloads, while having a competitive hosting price to ensure all our services remain cost-effective.”

THE SELECTION PROCESS

Kaspersky carried out extensive testing with the LeaseWeb network. Originally, two servers of 1 Gbps channel capacity were implemented. However, the impressive internet connectivity of LeaseWeb’s network proved to be enticing and the contract soon expanded to a third server, connected via a 10 Gbps high availability fiber port to create a more efficient and streamlined solution. “We wanted a hosting provider that could provide cost effective solutions while maintaining a highly professional level of support,” commented Maxim. We faced a few technical problems when developing our networking solution, but LeaseWeb’s very qualified support team was always on hand, including engineers and assistance from our account manager to quickly deal with any issues. These problems were dealt with quickly and easily giving us confidence in LeaseWeb. The team delivered a well-thought solution that met all our company requirements.”

THE BENEFITS

LeaseWeb had the superior connectivity and hosting infrastructure capable of meeting all the Kaspersky requirements successfully. With a highly developed network, carefully designed by skilled network architects, utilizing the advanced network core routers from leading companies: Cisco and Juniper; a large number of peers and transits to provide high reliability; and multihomed network connectivity, LeaseWeb exceeded Kaspersky’s requirements for a high quality hosting solution that adds real value to Kaspersky’s products.