I'm looking for a good colocation place in the London, UK area. Does anyone know of a good one, I've searched the net and only seemed to find one good one but would like to hear from anyone who uses one in the London/East Anglia area.

Thanks
Brendan

Hi,

Are you looking for places such as

Telehouse
Redbus


or actual companies within these places

Hi

I'm not sure what you mean, as I don't know the difference. I'm looking to find a decent priced colo for 1 server(size still to be confirmed) that can accomodate 100 gigs/month thats not too high a price. I've email Redhouse, but do they only do business with larger companies or not?

Brendan

Hi,

How much are you wanting to pay, you can get colo through uk2.net in redbus for £599 and i believe that includes 11U and 512kbps line, check out www.colo2.co.uk

Regards
Ben

http://www.ultraspeed.co.uk/

In Redbus Interhouse.
Very good pricing and support.

Gordon

RackSpace now has a London datacenter...

I don't think Rackspace provide colocation services though.

Alan

Originally posted by ho247
I don't think Rackspace provide colocation services though.

Alan

Oh, yeah - that's right...

Dialtone announced the opening of a London Datacenter.
Not many infos on their site at http://eu.dialtone.com/

baurk, may I ask why you are looking for colocation specifically in London? What are your needs?

Alan

Originally posted by BenDoherty
Hi,

How much are you wanting to pay, you can get colo through uk2.net in redbus for £599 and i believe that includes 11U and 512kbps line, check out www.colo2.co.uk

Regards
Ben


i would avoid uk2.net

Hi,

If your looking of serious bandwidth within the UK then there are really only two choices for collocation. The two major locations are as my colleague mentions REDBUS Interhouse at Harbour Exchange and Telehouse Europe Limited at Coriander Avenue, Docklands, London (just across the Thames from the Millennium Dome). We can provide rack space and bandwidth from within Telehouse North or within a Data Center on the grounds at Manchester University.

But just so you and other hosts understand. Telehouse is unique there are no data center's like it within the USA that I am aware of. There are inexcess of 100 carriers. YES!!! There are GIGs AND GIGs of bandwidth going though the two buildings especially Telehouse North where our servers are based :-)... One of the benefits of this diversity of suppliers is that cost are reduced due to the fact that there are no real distances between your network and your suppliers network. In most cases to connect your network to any of the 100 carriers is just a matter of running a cat 5 cable to their rack. This also makes any networks housed within the two data centers far more reliable as there are no WAN connections involved thus any failures can be addressed VERY quickly.

If you are anywhere near London then I would recommend it. REDBUS I believe has charges associated with being on the data center floor so any saving you may make by using them are irrelevant when you consider you have to pay to visit your server. Please check this out though.


Thanks and I hope this helps you.



Gareth Robins
NETRG.NET

I don't usually do this recommending post but I have just moved from one colocation comapny to another and understand the pitfalls of any such move. I eventually went for Caladan (http://www.caladan.net) due to mainly price and location (telehouse - london) and the features that they had to offer ( free reboots from a APC switch, Server backups for free, technical support free during working hours). All this usually cost me £80 p/h +.

They also are very responsive (even let me pay my bill a month late) to support queries and a great help with DNS. If you give them a ring ask for chris and say 'John' told you about them.

One last thing, if you are hosting sites, and your own dns at the moment with another colo company be sure at least a week before hand to change your TTL to a lower number so the change does not result in long down times for your sites.

Good luck.

I would still say go with Ultraspeed because they don't charge for reboots or anything like that and they have put a lot of work into improving redundancy on their network.
They also understand the hosting industry and this is important if your intention is to run a hosting business from the servers.
They also have reasonable bandwidth prices.

Gordon

Originally posted by GordonH
I would still say go with Ultraspeed because they don't charge for reboots or anything like that and they have put a lot of work into improving redundancy on their network.

My point (if read) was that Caladan didn't charge for reboots + backup, tech support and their network has been very reliable.

Cheers

Ja

P.S I am not a sales rep for caladan.

Hello,

Nothing bad about ultraspeed but 2 things i noticed:

Their NOC and dedicated servers are in New York City, however their colo service is in London, it sounds, however this is not proved so don't believe me :) that they resell the colo space via another company

Overage charges:

Not sure if they mean 0.8 of a penny or 8 pence pr megabyte

0.8p per MB <--- This is what it says on their website

However if it is 8 pence, then for colo space this isa lot extra to pay per gig

--

Caladan is a good company, with a top class network infrastructure

Thanks

Richard

I am a UK resident I would loooovvvveeeee to find a colo that could compete with the state side .......

I live in spitting distance of telehouse, telecity, redbus all in the Docklands area...

Truth is none of them can!!!!!!!

Get this for a giggle.....

Easynet.co.uk who ultraspeed.co.uk are using for their pier!

I was quoted 1900 per year for 10Gb of transfer or a 1mbs line into redbus for approx 12,000 per year yep that is equiv to 324Gb
per month if the line was running at 100% , 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 30 days a month..........

Oh and this does not include my rackspace rental from Redbus.

After I pointed out that they where taking the blatant piss they said "Oh we may be able to negotiate a better deal" and "We are going to be around for the foreseeable future", "we are turning a profit and have xyz zillions in the bank".

Point here = "Oh we may be able to negotiate a better deal"
Why not give me a frigging good price in the first place.....
Truth is I would not use them out of principle.

Right........

Now this is not a plug for Cogent or Level3 or anyone, but at the above prices I could take a chance with all of the cheapies at the same time, while they are all in business I have the benefit of redundancy. If any went out of business I still have servers connected to other providers and so on and still it works out cheaper.
Sure people moan about Cogent, this and that their ping is slow this and that, but in the real world unless you are running a game server these ping rates will not make the slightest difference to viewing WebPages, downloading files, streaming data etc etc.

Uk2.net well enough said. (COWBOYS)

Fasthosts ......... support is dire - non existent bandwidth very very very expensive, a conn (Mupets the lot of them) Book a fault with them which is a network fault (not a server fault) and they require a fax. I have to sign a document fax it back to them before the idiots will even look into it. Madness. They always look for excuses not to work on anything..... always. You have been warned!

Ok there is my 2 pence worth.....
I am waiting ....... lol

ps. I was also told today by the above companies that bandwidth is cheaper in the UK than in US right now.
Are the above just stupid, ignorant or blatant liars?

We pay Ultraspeed a similar price for UK and US bandwidth.
There is an NDC so I can't disclose the price but I can assure you its no more than you would expect to pay in the US.

Easynet quoted me for a 10meg line at £13,500 install and £52,000 per annum yesterday which is very cheap for that sort of spec.

The truth is if you shop around you will get a good deal inthe UK.
You won't find a rackshack type operation but you will get bandwidth for US type prices.

Gordon

Sure but look at these prices ......

100 mbps = $1000 per month http://www.cogentco.com/home.html

Originally posted by GordonH
We pay Ultraspeed a similar price for UK and US bandwidth.


Funny thing is that when we (Cyberstrider) get shortlisted for colo/dedicated servers, Ultraspeed does make an appearance in the list from time to time.. and we always get the business based on price, flexibility, features and experience. :-)

We are in both Redbus and Telehouse.

The network too is very good with multiple upstreams and peerings coming on board within the next few days.

-AotI

I looked at Cyberstrider at the time we went twith Ultraspeed.
It would have been fine for a dedicated hosting solution but for running a web hosting business it would have been a more complex solution.
Ultraspeed can supply everything together which IMO makes it an easier solution.

Gordon

Originally posted by GordonH
I looked at Cyberstrider at the time we went twith Ultraspeed.
It would have been fine for a dedicated hosting solution but for running a web hosting business it would have been a more complex solution.
Ultraspeed can supply everything together which IMO makes it an easier solution.
Gordon

Do you mean your requirement was a 'control panel management' solution type thing?

If so, watch this space - Cyberstrider are currently developing one. :-)

If you mean something else then I would be happy to hear from you to decipher what it was we could not provide to you seeing as we have 'won' potentials away from UltraSpeed.

Yes
It was the control panel issue.
Making your own is a large undertaking when there are so many available.

I think the other issue was bandwidth costs but I think Denesh has managed to reduce that since then.

Also by using Ultraspeed we have our US, UK and Canadian servers under the one management with uniformity between the set ups and one set of billing (which attracts discount because we have sufficient volume across the three countries)

Gordon

Originally posted by GordonH
Yes
It was the control panel issue.
Making your own is a large undertaking when there are so many available.
Gordon

Ah - OK. The CP stuff is not just the CP but a whole overhaul of the system which will allow us to 'licence' it's use to anyone who wants to set up a hosting company as a one-stop solution. It'll also be a uniform interface for all our customers spread across different systems and machines and allow for scalability.

There are ready made ones out there but it is always best to develop in-house for one's specificrequirements. It will take time but we will have a product we are happy with.. and in the process we will have gone to the next version of our hostng platform.

Originally posted by rmartin
Hello,

Nothing bad about ultraspeed but 2 things i noticed:

Their NOC and dedicated servers are in New York City, however their colo service is in London, it sounds, however this is not proved so don't believe me :) that they resell the colo space via another company

Overage charges:

Not sure if they mean 0.8 of a penny or 8 pence pr megabyte

0.8p per MB <--- This is what it says on their website

However if it is 8 pence, then for colo space this isa lot extra to pay per gig

--

Caladan is a good company, with a top class network infrastructure

Thanks

Richard


Does exactly what is says on the tin, since people are pushing there own service on here I will simply say that our bandwidth prices in the UK are cheaper than a lot of US companies.


We do not resell via another company, we have servers located in a number of NOCs around the world, we have our own rack at redbus and in the forseeable future will be upgrading to a cage when they have space available. Our technicians do all work on our rack except for reboots which are handled by redbus staff, if they are there use them ;o). Plese check your facts or contact me, Im avaialbe 18 hours a day by phone and ICQ and E-mail

Originally posted by AotI


Funny thing is that when we (Cyberstrider) get shortlisted for colo/dedicated servers, Ultraspeed does make an appearance in the list from time to time.. and we always get the business based on price, flexibility, features and experience. :-)

We are in both Redbus and Telehouse.

The network too is very good with multiple upstreams and peerings coming on board within the next few days.

-AotI


"always" strong wrd to use, you claim you have more experience and flexibility? that is something you cannot prove so please do not post that, Ultraspeed is a very experienced company.

Seeing as we are both on the lynx our networks will be identical, its just a matter of who you choose to pier through, everything at redbus hooks straight back onto the lynx. You source your bandwidth from a supplier and plug into a router.

Second point, if I had £1 for every person that claimed to be coding a Control panel I would have £14.75 in my pocket ;o)

ps. I was also told today by the above companies that bandwidth is cheaper in the UK than in US right now.
Are the above just stupid, ignorant or blatant liars? [/B]


They are none of those, it is correct that bandwidth charges fell in line with the US sometime last year, they are in cases cheaper,

Originally posted by Mike Shanks

"always" strong wrd to use, you claim you have more experience and flexibility? that is something you cannot prove so please do not post that, Ultraspeed is a very experienced company.


We are very experienced though - having been in the industry (in one form or another ) since 1989.. and in addition we actually get called upon to start Internet Operations for telcos - deal with the start up of creating the DNS/Domains department and initiate LIRs for them in addition to training staff to deal with these things when we have finished the project and left.

What's more we are heavily involved in Registry matters - our director is a Policy Advisor to Nominet and also a Chairman of RIPEs LIR Working Group. He even helped create UKERNa's gov.uk and ac.uk templates back in 1996!

So where experience is concerned - yes, definitely. :-)

Flexibility - well, we do bespoke services for clients.



Seeing as we are both on the lynx our networks will be identical, its just a matter of who you choose to pier through, everything at redbus hooks straight back onto the lynx. You source your bandwidth from a supplier and plug into a router.


But the networks we have are not identical.

Plus, neither you or we are at LINX (lynx???). Have you spent the £26,000 for the initial fee to join LINX? Who do you peer with there?

What you mean to say though is that your access provider - your upstream - is a LINX member... And our two upstreams are LINX members too..

Do you have multiple upstreams? Do you have your own AS number or RIPE membership? You do need your own RIPE membership to be a LINX member.

What we have though is multiple upstreams (LINX connected) and we have also signed up with XchangePoint and PacketExchange for peering (both of which are LINX type organisations and XP was created by the executives who originally created LINX)

So please do tell me how your network is better and more redundant than ours. ;-)

In fact if you do want a second transit feed for redundancy then I am sure we can provide it as we too are in Redbus - HEx and Meriden Gate.

Ok im off to the gym so a quick reply :)

basically your involvement in industry politics has very little to do with the day to day running of actual webhosting companies, it sounds like your director may be a bit over strectched :).

Second, we all go onto the linx one way or the other, pretty identical once your packet leaves the router of your carrier.

We have a contract signed for redundancy, thanks for the offer but im sure we have a better deal than you can offer us.

Thats all I wish to say on the matter,

Does anyone know any other data centre's that allow colocation in the UK.. more in the North West I mean?

Alan

Originally posted by ho247
Does anyone know any other data centre's that allow colocation in the UK.. more in the North West I mean?
Alan

Telecity in the Manchester Science Park.. or even Easynet's own facility around the same place.

Originally posted by ho247
Does anyone know any other data centre's that allow colocation in the UK.. more in the North West I mean?

Alan

No, but in my experience of hosting outside london its generally not worth it unless you need direct physical access to the servers.

On the other points above Mike did not mention that he is the ASN holder (or whatever) for Ultraspeeds ARIN allocation of IP's which they use in the USA.
However, I don't think that having your own IP's is the be all and end all of web hosting.
Its often easier to just use IP's allocated by your upstream.
In fact thats really the way its supposed to work.

Gordon

Originally posted by Mike Shanks
Ok im off to the gym so a quick reply :)
basically your involvement in industry politics has very little to do with the day to day running of actual webhosting companies, it sounds like your director may be a bit over strectched :).


You seriously think that? nowing the ins and outs of the industry is a great boon to running an internet business... it isn;t only to do with politics, but one also gets to exchange ideas with operational and technical staff too. This all goes to a much healthier running of the business.


Second, we all go onto the linx one way or the other, pretty identical once your packet leaves the router of your carrier.
[QUOTE]

Yes, you may get into LINX one way or another, but you are not a member of LINX and can not claim to be in the LINX. That was my point. It is your upstream that is a member of the LINX and it is them who have the redundancy and benefits (such as peering) that this brings, not your network.

[QUOTE]
We have a contract signed for redundancy, thanks for the offer but im sure we have a better deal than you can offer us.


Are you entirely sure about that? Do you even know our prices on wholesale bandwidth?

Anyway, enjoy the gym. :-)

I did enjoy the gym, except I got hit in the neck with a squash ball probably traveling 80mph :)

Yeah ARIN is so much nicer than RIPE as well, I've just about finished RIPE documentation for an allocation, its a pain in the neck (haha)

I'm not prepared to argue, but when you have 0 experience of our company and our operations first hand then you cannot comment on us. And please don't try and steal my favorite client ;o)

Yes - Caladan offer colocation space in Manchester University. This is taken from an email sent to me asking about their servce:

"We have our own SDH protected WAN between London and Manchester, but we also peer at MaNAP, so the quality of bandwidth at Manchester, whilst not quite as good as London, is still pretty good.

Basically, if the route to/from the end user is available via MaNAP, it will take that route in preference to the WAN link to London, but once in London, you are only one hop away from our border routers, so you have the RTT of the WAN link (around 7ms) plus one extra hop when in Manchester compared with co-locating in London."

Prices start from £10 per U which I think is good and am considering coloing my-self.

Ja