I am looking for a credible, known hosting company for my company to partner with. Our clients are Fortune 1000 and require everything from simple hosting to managed hosting and colo. Seems as though every company I look at (WorldCom, Cable and Wireless, Genuity, Globix, etc.) are all going down! Does a good, brand name hosting company exist anymore?

That list you gave are not hosting companies(some may do hosting but its not their core business). They are bandwidth providers which hosting use.

Rackspace (http://www.rackspace.com) is a well known "brand name" managed hosting company with an excellent reputation. A couple other major hosting companies that come to mind are Verio (http://www.verio.com) and Pair Networks (http://www.pair.com), both of which have been around for quite some time.

Conxion - http://www.conxion.com/

They host Microsoft.

Verio is closing up datacenters all over the place. I wouldn't recommend them. What about AT&T?

RackSpace.com is by far the best company with the best services. They are awesome, if you need Fortune 1000, corporate hosting, your best bet is to go with RackSpace.com

Go with RackSpace.com, they wont let you down



Jim

Originally posted by Dilhole
That list you gave are not hosting companies(some may do hosting but its not their core business). They are bandwidth providers which hosting use.

Actually C&W has a quite a large hosting facility in northern Virginia, if not elsewhere as well. As a customer, I've spent some time in their "network room" where the routers/switches are clearly labeled with the customers' names so it's easy to tell who's there. They host quite a few big players and have a pretty impressive NOC.

C&W also owns Exodus now, which is focused on hosting.

Remember bigger name is not always better. In this day in age, I would look at companies that are profitable, and that own there own equipment and are not relying on outside funds to keep operating.

I would also look at the facilities they run, and verify what they are advertising is infact correct. Many places advertise they have this and that, which gets them by 99% of the time, then one day something goes wrong and you find out they diddnt have what they said they did and as a result you sufferd an outage, or worse..

-JFC

I would also have to say Rackspace would be your best bet for these kind of clients. This is mainly what Rackspace specialise in.

Not having much experience with RackShack, I would be a little carefull for using it to host other sites. My reasoning is at the price they are selling these box's they are not making any profit.

Without knowing there strategy this could be dangerous. For instance when you purchase a dedicated server you are paying/they are paying for the following:

1) Power
2) Backup Power
3) Rent for space
4) Cooling costs
5) Bandwidth Costs
6) Employee Costs

etc...

To pay for all of these things they need to make enough to cover these expenses while making a profit to make there buisness worth while. I can only assume that they are selling cheap to build a name, and later charge a higher fee. Or they are selling cheap to sell to build a client base and to charge a higher fee once they have built there client base.

Again without knowing more these are only speculations. However I would consider them.

You must also consider your support. What happens when a box goes down? How fast are they to respond/take actions. Are they making up for there low cost with less support? If so this wouldnt be a good thing for your clients. However if you were hosting your own site and high uptime wasnt as big of a factor, then this might not be as big of a deal..

In the end I would way what is most important and shop accordingly.

-JFC

On another note depending on the size sites, you might simply want to become a reseller for a respected web host.

-JFC

Originally posted by jfcc101
Not having much experience with RackShack, I would be a little carefull for using it to host other sites. My reasoning is at the price they are selling these box's they are not making any profit.

I think you are probably wrong on that one. Say they buy the box for $2000

They keep the box for 2 years.

$129 x 24 = $3096 + $349 = $3445 - $2000 = $1445 / 24 = $60

$60 profit per month per box.

Also I don't think they would be selling them if they made no profit. Do you?

A few different comments:

Not having much experience with RackShack, I would be a little carefull for using it to host other sites. It seems odd when someone asks for a recommendation that your post advises against someone instead; and someone who hasn't been recommended... so why bring them up?

There were a couple of recommendations for RackSpace, and I'd agree that they're a solid choice. But...

Remember bigger name is not always better. Absolutely true. But I know what eMondo is dealing with, having consulted for Fortune 1000 firms myself. These folks tend to like to deal with other companies of their stature when possible. If I recommend to one of these companies that they go with "Big Bob's Basement of WebHosting" because Bob's a personable guy and tries real hard, they're going to be pretty unforgiving if something goes wrong. But if I recommend a Verio or someone who can credibly be termed an "industry leader" and a company that has a big financial stature itself, they feel more comfortable.

If a firm like that happens to go into bankruptcy next year, it's unlikely that their clients will be left without hosting -- most likely someone else will be there to take over. If Bob decides to convert the basement into a gameroom, there's a good chance that clients will be on their own.

Verio is closing up datacenters all over the place. I wouldn't recommend them. They closed some, and have three -- two in the US and one in Europe -- remaining. They seem pretty stable now, and they'd be my recommendation. RackSpace would be my number 2, but Verio's recognition factor would win out if I were making presentation to a Fortune 1000.

Originally posted by alchiba


Actually C&W has a quite a large hosting facility in northern Virginia, if not elsewhere as well. As a customer, I've spent some time in their "network room" where the routers/switches are clearly labeled with the customers' names so it's easy to tell who's there. They host quite a few big players and have a pretty impressive NOC.

C&W also owns Exodus now, which is focused on hosting.

Hosting or colocation? Seems you are using hosting to include colocation which is fine, I dont. No biggie thou just preference of the terms ;)

I meant hosting in the broad sense. The C&W facility I'm familiar with does whatever you want, but I doubt a Fortune 1000 company would opt for a virtual account on a RaQ or white box. :D My guess is anyone in that league would want at least a colo if not a fully managed solution.

Cable and Wireless is just a choice too skeptical still. Althought they have a foot in practically every form of communications worldwide and took up half of the defunct exodus, we really dont know the road they are heading for.

Rackspace has a good reputation. Good Support for large clients and the price is decent compared to the large providers for extensive serious managed solutions.

For fortune 1000 companies, you would definately be looking at complex solutions. Caged colocation, and a whole bunch of load balancing and managed solutions. Budget is not the road to go.

Althought worldcom had a sloppy year in sales, they nevertheless provide one of the best quality solutions and support.