Hosting technology from Pipex Business is powering a brand new online experience from the British Library, allowing website users to explore pages of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks and other rare works.
The technology was demonstrated for the first time at the Windows Vista launch at the British Library. Microsoft is teaming up with Pipex Business, Dell and F5 Networks to provide the ground breaking experience for internet users, allowing them to see the British Library and Bill Gates's Leonardo da Vinci notebooks – reunited for the first time in 500 years – along with other British Library treasures such as early manuscripts of Jane Austen and Lewis Carroll.
The hosting service includes high-speed connectivity, equivalent to thousands of broadband connections, to Pipex’s Harbour Exchange datacentre. Pipex Business is also providing a firewall, switches, project management and 24/7 monitoring to the British Library.
“It’s a pleasure to work with the British Library and Microsoft as part of such a fascinating and innovative project,” says Mike Read, CEO of Pipex. “Hosting plays a vital role in enabling so many people to enjoy these previously unseen works and we’re pleased to be able to play a prominent role to make it happen.”
Cynthia Crossley, Director Windows Client Business Group, Microsoft UK, says, “The revolutionary ‘Turning the Pages 2.0’ technology developed by the British Library on the new Windows Vista operating system owes its success also to the excellence of the work done by Pipex. We anticipated intense demand for viewing the newly reunited notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks once they were live on the British Library website. Such advanced technology requires a highly available and resilient network which Pipex has delivered with great success.”