Founded in 2014, INVITAL Aqua quickly established itself as the largest online retailer in Europe specialising in aquariums, terrariums, and garden ponds. Their unique approach combines in-house production with goods importation, allowing them to offer a wide range of high-quality products to hundreds of thousands of customers in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and now Slovenia.
A standout feature of INVITAL Aqua is their rapid dispatch, which is vital for perishable items such as plants. They can prepare a parcel for the courier within 10 minutes of receiving an order. This is partly due to their bespoke warehouse software, run on a managed Windows server by vshosting~.
INVITAL Aqua in figures
2014
340 000
410 000
5 countries
From a dedicated server to a constantly managed Windows solution
INVITAL Aqua has been putting trust into vshosting~ for years. Their collaboration began with a managed Linux server. Therefore, when they transitioned to the new warehouse software, Altus Vario, which required Windows, they wanted to the new Windows server from vshosting~ as well. The server was initially managed by external administrators, while vshosting~ handled the hardware.
As soon as vshosting~ introduced their managed Windows službu, INVITAL Aqua decided to transition to this professional, 24/7 supported version. A crucial factor was the need for reliability and constant server supervision, especially given the nature of their business. They dispatch to 5 European countries, mostly plants that must be delivered swiftly to prevent them from perishing. Everything fits perfectly, from planning the number of staff in the warehouse to processing an order – they can prepare a parcel for the courier within 10 minutes of receiving a customer’s order.
E-shops run 24/7; there’s no room for mistakes
If something goes wrong behind the scenes of an e-shop, unlike a physical store, you can’t just shut the doors. Orders keep coming in, problems escalate rapidly, and it’s impossible to catch up. That’s why it was vital for INVITAL Aqua to have everything operating at 100% and to always have a team of experts on hand. The only one who could offer this was vshosting~.
We needed a partner with a dedicated 24/7 team of admins on hand, whom we could call at 2 in the morning (if they hadn’t detected the issue before us) and who could assist us. Moreover, these admins are physically present next to the servers. This managed service is absolutely crucial for us.
Upgrading to AMD EPYC processors enhanced server performance
INVITAL Aqua relies heavily on automation, so they have high demands for their server and its reliability. As part of their hosting solution’s optimisation, they also switched from Intel Gold CPU to the more modern AMD EPYC. This change led to increased performance and efficiency, enabling INVITAL Aqua’s server to handle demanding operations linked to rapid order processing and dispatch more effectively.
Thanks to the reliable solution from vshosting~, INVITAL Aqua can focus on growing its business
INVITAL Aqua considers their partnership with vshosting~ to be extremely valuable. Since transitioning to the managed Windows řešení they’ve noticed a significant increase in professionalism and reliability compared to when external administrators were in charge of their Windows server management.
vshosting~ always addresses all requests and queries within minutes and informs the client in advance about any impending server activities. INVITAL Aqua greatly appreciates all of this, as well as the overall service operation:
“Since transferring server management to vshosting~, we’ve never had to deal with any server-related issues, meaning we can focus on increasing sales and expanding to other countries,” adds Vít Hellebrand, Co-owner of INVITAL Aqua