Hi guys,

This is not request for offers. I will do a request in 30 days.

I just want to know about the different data center in San Francisco, hosts, resellers, their quality of service and support, and what I should know about and what I should avoid.

I am mainly interested in SF colo, but may be interested in San Jose or Fremont colo, depending on the price.

Thanks.

ps, 1U server, 0.5 mbps bandwidth.

Fremont He, XO
San Jose XO
Exchange Colo
Level 3 Fremont/San Jose (Can't remember where, it's one of the two)

Just to name a few.

ColoServ is in San Fran also

He.net in Fremont - great bandwidth but go through a reseller to get a better price.

Other than the big downtime some time ago at exchange, how's their quality?

It depends on the provider in exchange.. do you mean like if you were to buy a cabinet at exchange?

OK, now the question is, who are some of the good providers at exchange? I want to co-lo a 1U server and only need 0.5mbps bandwidth.

You're probably better off at HE.net Fremont.

Originally posted by Mfjp
You're probably better off at HE.net Fremont.

Or at one of several other places in the Bay Area...

I love how people assume that eXchange Colo and He.NET are the only two places to colo in the Bay Area, when, in fact, there are many others.

-Erica

I am in SF, and I prefer to be able to drive down the DC if necessary. However, if there is a big advantage colo at HE than eXchange, I will consider it.

I would pick HE if I were you. Or go MFN SJ3 with Erica. It's not that far to drive to San Jose.

Originally posted by Mfjp
I would pick HE if I were you. Or go MFN SJ3 with Erica. It's not that far to drive to San Jose.

Hehehe... thanks... although I wasn't just meaning that as self-promotion. There are several other datacenters around, too, including Level3 in San Jose, 365 Main in SF, XO in Fremont, and many others.

By the way, as my sales rep informed me the other day, "It's Abovenet now. Just Abovenet." ;) (Now I have to go around changing our whole website... :( )

-Erica

Originally posted by riverpast
I am in SF, and I prefer to be able to drive down the DC if necessary.

I live in Pacifica, and it's about a 45-mile drive to Abovenet SJ3 (where Simpli calls "home".)

I don't find it to be that big of a deal at all. Even with 20+ servers, I'm down there once a week, max. (Our APC Masterswitches and remote hands agreement help tremendously.) We used to colo at a datacenter in SF (not one anyone has mentioned above) and I am really glad we moved to Abovenet because it's just simply a better datacenter.

Not to say that there aren't any good datacenters in San Francisco... but if you're only colocating a server or two, and especially if you have remote reboot ports available, physical access is really moot. Even if you do need to go down there, it's not really that big of a deal.

eXchange was down for 5 hours a month or so ago. I know one company who colocated major servers (as in, running thousands of dollars worth of transactions for their company) in a small datacenter in SF. Reason? They could walk down the street and fiddle with their servers. Their datacenter was down that day for 5 hours because something like 90% of that datacenter's traffic was funneled through eXchange. Their backup lines simply overloaded with traffic and fell over. This datacenter should have had its act together, but it didn't... and the company got burned because they picked proximity over quality.

Close proximity to the datacenter is overrated. There are many good datacenters in the Bay Area; don't sell yourself short just because one is closer than another.

-Erica

By the way. Still nobody have figured out who's at 1380 Kifer street SJC in Level3 to offer any kind of service.

I have done some reading at WHT, and I have seen that HE got a good reputation, and eXchange did not (mainly because of the 5 hour down time?).

What I would like to see if a more detailed comparison. Why would you say HE (or any other DC) is better than eXchange? (other than that 5 hour down). Also, comparison of the costs would be nice too.

I guess if I can get a remote reboot port, it wouldn't be too bad to be hosted at Fremont or SJ, if the price is right.

Anyone has experience with ***********, and the data center at 1019 Mission?

I can vouch for the service and support from Erica. They've won my respect in how they've handled a situation with one of my boxes.
If you want service, I'd suggest that HE is not for you. There are resellers who may be able to add a layer of service and support, but HE themselves seem a pure datacenter play.
Reboots? Sure, HE can and will do those and pretty quickly even.
I've been at eXchange, Clear Blue, Applied Theory, HE, Tri Valley, Globix and Equinex in one form or another. I can say that HE is as clean and well organized as any of them and better than some.
Asia has some great deals on these forums that are in the HE facility.
I know of no single facility that has been completely problem free in the time they've existed. It's how they respond during and after the incident that I find compelling. Using eXchange as an example, what did they learn from the outage? Have they implemented controls and procedures to mitigate the risk of a repeat? Have they looked at similar systemic and operatoinal aspects that may also need refinement? Have they communicated any of this to their clients?
The other obvious component is your own use of the service. You mention 1U and .5 Mbps, so it sounds like this isn't an enterprise-level situation. Can you afford downtime? Can you live with "standard" replies to inquiries about performance? ("It's a DDoS attack." "We don't see any problems." "It's your ISP." Our standard rate is X to look into this since it's a client issue.") And finally, is it a provider you can grow with if that's part of your plans?
Sorry for the rambling.. the coffee is extra strong today ;)

Originally posted by riverpast
Anyone has experience with ***********, and the data center at 1019 Mission?

That was the datacenter I was referring to in my previous post about the company that picked the datacenter down the street...

-Erica

Anyone try 365 Main Street? I heard they're new and suppose to be quite good. It seems to be an old Abovenet facility.

Originally posted by riverpast
Anyone has experience with ***********, and the data center at 1019 Mission?

*********** itself are great people and I'm enjoying working with them :) Their network is very stable and apart from that 5 hour outage at eXchange there have been no problems whatsoever. They were affected by that problem because they connect to most of their upstreams there. Nothing wrong with that because eXchange has never been down for the time I've been there (over 2 years) except for that single outage.

I would not really put any servers in their 1019 mission st. data-center though, but that's just me :) Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad data-center but it's not in the same league as eXchange for example. If you're in SF ask them for a tour.

If you go with *********** you should take a look at either eXchange or their facility at 60 Fed. St. I believe you won't regret such a decision :) as they're great. I'm not sure whether they sell space in such small quantities in those data-centers though.

Originally posted by Mfjp
Anyone try 365 Main Street? I heard they're new and suppose to be quite good. It seems to be an old Abovenet facility.


ya i heard of them , really i live next to them ...

let me see if i can get a tour

I only need 0.5mbps (maybe 1mbps in six months), and it is not that mission critical (which means the oppotunity cost of down time is not that high, yet).

A friend of mine has a rack at 1019 mission, which comes with his T1 lease. He is using neither the rack nor the bandwidth, and he is willing to let me co-lo for a very good price. So, I will probably be in 1019 mission.

Thanks guys, you are great help!

John