What is the best datacenters in the US in terms of speed and connectivity? I was just curious.

Do you mean Datacenter or NOC?

There simply is no "best NOC".

Post edited, but the main "Subject" won't change.

<<Fixed for you :)>>

Originally posted by RackMy.com
Do you mean Datacenter or NOC?
haa, give the guy a break ;)

Originally posted by Walter
There simply is no "best NOC".
Yes there is .. I have seen some amazing pics of NOC's .. Interliand has a great one, so does communitech .. biut I never saw their datacenters :D

I was just wondering :) There are companies who only do DCs and others that only do NOCs.

Depends on what you are looking for....

There are some buildings that it seems every carrier in the world terminates to. So, there is a wide breadth of carriers, but not always a lot of bandwidth.

On the other hand, if you look at a Sprint/CW/Level 3/UUNET data center there is a lot of bandwidth, but you only have a single provider.

I'm sure there are specific datacenters that have a lot connectivity, as well as a wide range. However, for generic good connectivity from multiple tier 1 carriers, your best bet is Equinix. You are going to pay through the nose for the hosting there, and you are hosting with a company that hired Sam Kapoor -- but you have access to a great deal of bandwidth.

The fact of the matter is, if you are in a datacenter with redundant connections and good hardware with good people running it, it shouldnt be down often if ever. They don't have to have every connection under the sun, or OC-191232 connections to be a good place to colo or whatever, they just need to have people in place who know what theyre doing, and the right equipment to do the job.

-Brendan

Look at Inflow -- I have some good contacts there and the service is SUPERB!!

Guaranteed 2-rings and you have a HUMAN!

Drew

I couldn't agree more with Drew. I've seen Inflow as well, and their data center is one of the best there is. And what I like the most are their professionalism in dealing with clients and their facility. I call it state of the art (both the service and the facility). Everytime I call, I got someone on the other end, never a voice mail (and I called during odd hours at that time).

Does anyone have comments on Broadwing and DataFoundry?

look for Data Centers / NOC's which host EFNet (Erris Free Network) Servers (IRCD's). They'll be guaranteed to be fast, have a lot of bandwidth (you can't link to efnet otherwise), and probably have industrial strength firewalls to smack the packet kiddies. Just whatever you do, make sure theres routes that the EFNet server doesen't have access to (so when the packet kiddies come in hordes, all your links aren't killed). That may sound silly, but its an easy way of weeding out some big facilities out there, as EFNet servers are housed at some of the biggest. Might also wanta look around the MAE-East and West regions respectively :).

There are alot of different options

If you go neutral fiber facility

Equinix - IBX Centers are premier, there pretty amazing.

Outside those, there are many good ones.

I like the neutral ones s&d colo.com just because i get to pick and choose

Joe

Originally posted by JBIZ718

I like the neutral ones s&d colo.com just because i get to pick and choose


And you get the added benefit of watching them go in and out of bankruptcy court and sell off assets -- including data centers -- to pay down their debt :D.

Inflow is a great data center and great company, but when looking for the best data center dont you think financial stability is a issue to.

Most definitely Charles :)

So, is inflow in anyway in debt?

Originally posted by rey
Most definitely Charles :)

So, is inflow in anyway in debt?

Of course, you can't build 18 data centers in 4 years without accumulating some debt :).

Inflow has raised about $300 Million, and they are still privately held. As of the end of last year, they had 650 customers distributed throughout their 18 facilities.


They also did a round of layoffs (15%) in December, in an effort to reach profitability by the end of this year.

http://www.carrierhotels.net/news/December2001/inflowrif.shtml

Atlanta is with Austin and Philadelphia among others as being cash flow positive.

Regards,
Drew

Allan well equinix has been pretty darn stable so far.

Even your BIG companies like verio and what not closed shop.

Overall nothin totally for sure.

But to me neutral facilities are the only way to go. For many reasons. One thing I like is every carrier out there is in the facility.

You go to a verio/uunet/level 3 and you get just that. You go neutral, you pick and choose

Joe

Or in the case of Inflow, THEY choose and you get fast bandwidth for clients.

Drew

The bandwidth in internap is no faster then the bandwidth in equinix

Originally posted by JBIZ718
The bandwidth in internap is no faster then the bandwidth in equinix

Actually Drew was talking about Inflow (http://www.inflow.com). I think his point is that with Equinix, you -- as a hosting customer -- select which provider you are going to use, and all traffic passes through that provider. If you host in an inflow datacenter you have the benefit of automatically having access to multiple backbones. This means that traffic will travel the fastest route into and our from your servers. So, while there may not be any more bandwidth at Inflow data centers than there is at Equinix, unless you are willing to sign with the same 10 providers that Inflow has (which would cost you a bundle), you are going to have better routing from Inflow.

actually i ment inflow instead of internap

And actually whats interestin about interap as it takes the top 9 companies in equinix for us.

It wouldnt be to dificult in equinix with over 65 diverse carriers there now.

I do understand what you are sayin they have this network there, but you pay for that of course.

Equinix is power and space. You pick your carriers

Joe

Originally posted by porcupine
look for Data Centers / NOC's which host EFNet (Erris Free Network) Servers (IRCD's). They'll be guaranteed to be fast, have a lot of bandwidth (you can't link to efnet otherwise), and probably have industrial strength firewalls to smack the packet kiddies. Just whatever you do, make sure theres routes that the EFNet server doesen't have access to (so when the packet kiddies come in hordes, all your links aren't killed). That may sound silly, but its an easy way of weeding out some big facilities out there, as EFNet servers are housed at some of the biggest. Might also wanta look around the MAE-East and West regions respectively :).

That is a shortsighted set of requirements. Data centers that host efnet irc servers would probably be a magnet of some undesirable attention. Additionally, I don't want someone else filtering my traffic. I'm fine doing that myself.