Thinking of becoming like DN, I am seeking for how to get a large amount of servers. Any idea? DN buys Dell machines? I do not thinks so.

What's wrong with Dell machines?

Buying Dell is cost-effective?
Looking for anyway less expensive.

No, they are not less cost effective. They are better systems and you spend less long term on hardware replacement.

Build custom, or buy a Dell or HP. You can try to go cheap, but you *will* end up paying for it.

Dells aren't anything special. Same parts as any other.

Try getting your servers from places like supermicro or rackmountsetc...

CHeap & Good quality stuff.

Dells aren't anything special. Same parts as any other.


Obviously you have never had a rackmount dell with hotswap scsi...

Originally posted by Rax
Dells aren't anything special. Same parts as any other.


Wanna bet?

I've ran custom servers, Dell servers, and just about every other brand at some point, I always had less problems with the Dell's and if something failed and we didn't have a spair onsite we'd have it the next morning with a Dell tech standing there if we had anymore problems with it.

I forgot what the numbers were but when we bought X amount of servers they offered us a discount on the next batch and so on...it turned out to be a good deal after the first batch of servers we bought.

Also if your looking for the cheapest way to do this it's most likely going to cost you later.

If you want to get servers from a reliable source at great pricing, check out this company:
http://www.cavaliericomputing.com

They are a small business but we've bought servers from them and they have worked great and are very reliable. The owner, Bill Cavalieri, is extremely knowledgeable and a great guy to work with as well. Definitely worth you checking out, if nothing else.

Originally posted by Razer
Try getting your servers from places like supermicro or rackmountsetc...

CHeap & Good quality stuff.

supermicro does not build servers, they make chassis, motherboards and barebones. they also do not sell to end users. if you have ever priced supermicros, they are not cheap. they may be more cost effective than overpriced brand machines that have nice looking grey bezels, but they certainly are not cheap in any meaning of the word. excellent stuff though, we are pretty much standardized on supermicro stuff for intel boxes and couldnt be happier.

paul

Originally posted by capecod
Thinking of becoming like DN, I am seeking for how to get a large amount of servers. Any idea? DN buys Dell machines? I do not thinks so.
If you want to become like DN, I hope you're cashed up and have a physical presence in the datacenter - IE - you and your own staff on the DC floor. :)

You'll be singing.. "Buh-bye Money!" instead of.. "Show Me The Money!".

But if you have it to spare, do it like Aussie Bob suggests.. and actually have a physical presence on the DC floor.

If not, and a client needs a reboot, they get to call you, you get to call the DC, the server stays down a few hours through the juggling of the telephone calls, your client gets mad, say buh-bye to the client.

Originally posted by mesopia(Jay)
...have a physical presence on the DC floor.

If not, and a client needs a reboot, they get to call you, you get to call the DC, the server stays down a few hours through the juggling of the telephone calls, your client gets mad, say buh-bye to the client.

This absolutely isn't true. I want to emphasize that there are many NOCs out there where a reboot call takes 10 minutes or less, just like any dedicated server company.

We have a remote hands contract with MFN/Abovenet. We post a ticket for a reboot and it's resolved 10 minutes later. In fact, MFN has been very responsive and helpful whenever we needed help, and this includes those hairy times at 2AM.

Of course, we've also invested in APC Masterswitches to put the control in the hands of the users (at <$32/server, this is really a no-brainer.)

It sounds like you either have had a bad experience with a NOC or you just assume that this is the case. Regardless, if you pick a good NOC, what you said isn't true... and it does the good NOCs injustice for you to claim such.