The client

Earth Day Canada (EDC) is a national environmental communications organization mandated to improve the state of the environment by empowering Canadians to achieve local solutions. Founded in 1991, EDC coordinates Earth Day/Earth Month events and delivers successful year-round community programs and award-winning artistic and media projects.

The challenge

"In the late 1990s, we made a strategic, environmental decision to reduce our print communications," says Jed Goldberg, President of EDC. "Naturally, our web site became our core communications tool.

"We spend significant resources attracting people to our web site. Our site must be a fantastic product that will win over visitors immediately. We cannot afford to have a site that crashes or loads slowly. Although we are a charitable organization, we are still a business that provides a service."

With this in mind, EDC identified three key requirements for a web host:

1. Reliable service
   EDC's main web site and four program sites receive tens of thousands of visitors per month from around the world. Stakeholders also regularly visit EDC's sites. As a result, EDC's web presence must always be available. "Our sites can't be down for even a few minutes," says Mark Farmer, EDC's Web master.

2. Ability to handle a high volume of visitors
   During Earth Month in April, EDC's sites receive even more visitors than usual, transmitting over a hundred gigabytes of data. Hence, EDC's web host must be able to handle high amounts of traffic with no reduction in site loading speed.

3. Ability to handle interactive content, such as that provided by ColdFusion
   Ecokids.ca is EDC's busiest, most popular site. It features a variety of interactive games, puzzles, and educational information for school-aged children. Thus, EDC requires a web host that supports interactive programming and can load these memory-intensive applications quickly and seamlessly.

The solution

In 2002, Earth Day Canada chose Korax Inc. to host its web sites, based on its premium services. After negative experiences with other web hosts, EDC's web design team was delighted to finally find a host that met its needs.

"Korax follows through on promises and delivers," says Goldberg. "With Korax, we are buying a solution. We can always depend on our service from Korax."

Thanks to two separate data facilities, Korax ensures constant service, even in the event of an extended power failure. Each facility provides multi-homed redundant fibre connectivity to the Internet backbone. Korax's core data facility is located in a secure, carrier-class data centre in downtown Toronto at 151 Front Street, Canada's premier telecommunications hub. A second data facility at the company's University Avenue location provides failover and redundancy.

About customer service, Mark Farmer says, "Any issues we've ever had have been dealt with quickly and professionally. Korax provides extremely knowledgeable technical support. You always reach someone who can help right away."

Korax's peering agreements with other networks and major Internet service providers further enhance service reliability and speed. Peering allows for the quickest possible access to a hosted web from the most diverse amount of locations, regardless of how many visitors a site receives.

"It's essential for our sites to be delivered with 100% reliability during April, and they have to be delivered just as quickly then as during the rest of the year," says Farmer. "Korax has the power and expertise to do that for us."

More benefits

In addition to support for interactive content, Korax also provides EDC with the following value-added benefits.

1. Service administration control panel
   All Korax customers have access to AMS Control Panel, a web-based interface developed by Korax that allows customers to accomplish numerous site administration tasks on their own. These include:
   • Changing web and email passwords
   • Adding and deleting email addresses
   • Creating databases
   • Allowing or restricting user access to the Control Panel
   • Adding, deleting, and customizing services
   • Completing day-to-day billing tasks
   "Korax makes my job easier," explains Farmer. "I can concentrate on web design instead of housekeeping. I've never encountered a host that offers this many features for web masters, or such a high level of customization."

2. Site reports
   AMS Control Panel also makes detailed site reports available. Statistics include:
   • How many people visit the site
   • Where visitors are located
   • What web browsers visitors use
   • Which pages receive the most traffic
   • Which search engines visitors use to find the site
   • Amount of data transferred from the site
   • Dozens of other features
   Such information is essential for EDC. "Our stakeholders need to know how our sites are being used," says Farmer. "These are the clearest, most thorough reports of any provider I've come across."

3. Additional services
   Farmer has moved all of EDC's domain names to Korax for simpler management. He has also made use of the extra databases and other features Korax offers.

The result

"We enjoy a very good relationship with Korax," Goldberg says. "They are respectful of our needs and provide dependable service. We have never considered switching hosts."

Hosting with Korax has enabled EDC to strengthen its image as a sophisticated communications provider. Ecokids.ca has won several awards, including the 2002 WebAward for Outstanding Web Site. The site is also featured on EducationWorld.com as a top resource for teachers.

In 2004, EDC won the prestigious "Outstanding Service to Environmental Education by an Organization" award. Presented by the North American Association for Environmental Education, it is the top award of its kind in North America.