If you're with Inflow, or colo w/ someone in an Inflow facility, you'd better have a migration plan handy. They're closing everything but 2 facilities and f*uckedcompany has them front and center. Not to scare anyone, read up on it yourself.

is there no end to the fun and excitement of all of these companies going belly up? (or as close as you can to it)


Exodus... Verio.... now Inflow..... geeze

They're closing everything but 2 facilities That is not true, out of 17 or so datacenters they sold 2 and are closing 3. They are now EBITA +. Please read http://www.inflow.com/news/view_news.asp?ID=107

Um.......

If their not going to eventually close them all down then why did they say

"Going forward, Inflow will operate two national network operation centers (NOCs)—one in Denver, Colo. another in Austin, Texas—to provide centralized, around-the-clock, customer service and support"

Sounds 2 me like their dumping all but those two.

Originally posted by DanielP
Um.......

If their not going to eventually close them all down then why did they say

"Going forward, Inflow will operate two national network operation centers (NOCs)—one in Denver, Colo. another in Austin, Texas—to provide centralized, around-the-clock, customer service and support"

Sounds 2 me like their dumping all but those two.

NOC vs. IDCs. They are not closing all data centers but two.

I dont think they will go away either - they can always even file a reorg like a bunch of other guys are doing and come out debt free (or close to it). My only concern is the sudden layoff of 60% of their staff and how a company this size will handle that in absorbing the support functions and knowlege base. Also - someone mentioned that they will not be at their IDC's on a 24x basis - this is worriesome for a company as well - since they have many higher end apps located at their IDC's.

They will definately need to cut back on their ad claims at the best out there without 24x7 on site.

Is this correct?

Originally posted by DanielP
Um.......

If their not going to eventually close them all down then why did they say

"Going forward, Inflow will operate two national network operation centers (NOCs)—one in Denver, Colo. another in Austin, Texas—to provide centralized, around-the-clock, customer service and support"

Sounds 2 me like their dumping all but those two.

I interpreted it as they are keeping other dcs running, but will be only skeleted staff - all support / sales stuff out of hours will be handled through the 2 dcs mentioned.

They still have someone to reboot servers at 3AM. I checked last night.

Drew

They still have someone to reboot servers at 3AM. I checked last night. No, not anymore. The only IDCs that will be staffed 24x7 are Austin & Denver.

Inflow basically changed their model due to necessity. Instead of having staff 24x7 in each IDC, the looked and found that only 3% of their support needs were after hours and something like .1% of that needed human interaction at the IDC after hours. This is why they went to a 6a - 11p M-F staffing of the IDCs and Denver and Austin will be the central NOCs.

That's not my understanding,but I'm probably wrong. Well, now I can get some sleep at night, as waking up will do no good. :-)

Think about it: BellSouth and their regional equivilancies are run in a similar manner. The tech people go home and go to sleep. When someone needs a phone line fixed, they call a person who-knows-where and submit an order to get it fixed. The tech fixes it early the next morning.

I'm not saying that the BellSouth model is perfect, but from a supplier standpoint, they do have their name on a lot of buildings and they do create a lot of value in the economy.

Drew

That is our model. While we're certainly very small, it's a VERY rare circumstance when one of our customers needs onsite after hours. In fact, so far this year, we've had one customer who's switch power supply failed about 10pm, and that's been it (knock on wood!)... hardly enough to justify full time onsite staff after 9pm.

Our local techs share after hours call-out responsibility, basically on week-long rotations. We average a couple of after-hours calls per month, and those are almost always a problem on the customer's side, not ours. We're upfront about it though, if for peace-of-mind and security, you want a babysitter onsite 24x7, you're better off going somewhere else and paying 3X as much per month. I think, and our customers seem to agree, it's a great tradeoff.

I'm still somewhat surprised a company of Inflow's size won't have at least a single tech onsite 24x7. Just my $0.02,

Brandon

Inflow, Exodus, Verio, _______ (fill in the blank), etc... are the number one reason why we only buy cabinets from small regional guys. In the three years we have been offering services, our locations we colo have expanded and are all cash positive. In fact one place is building a fourth extension to the DC to add 200 more cabinets. The other one we are at just bought a new NOC from a dead VC funded 'super' colo. Both have 24/7 remote hands support!

I wonder if any Inflow guys can tell us if they are getting discounted for services now. Inflow was very expensive, but now with no 24/7 ops at most places, seems like they should be passing on some savings.

A NOC isnt where servers are, a NOC is where tech service and support is conducted, networks monitored etc... running things out of two NOC's doesnt necessarily mean there isnt going to be someone there to flip a switch at a datacenter.

-Brendan

Sorry if my post caused confusion about what is closing - regardless, sounds a whole heck of a lot like Relera...anyone been successful after heading down this path - No company I can think of. When the sales staff goes, the company is normally close behind. I'm not an Inflow hater or anything - hey it's founded by a fellow Zoomie! Just passing on what I read and my own interpretation. To ref an article on the companies site regarding their own financial viability - well, that's a little suspect, it's your dollar, but some pts about it:
EBITDA positive - ahhhh so - that really doesn't mean your making enough to cover your debt load.

"This is a natural evolution of our business model and reflects an enhanced means of customer service, “said Joel Daly, COO for Inflow

So closing locations you paid big bucks for is a natural evolution? Sounds more like poor planning and awfully familiar from these Chapter 11 companies.

2 years ago the small regional guys got slammed by the big guys about financial viability. We all heard it from Verio, Colo.com, and Inflow. Now that the small guy has the upper hand, it is time to go get their customers, which puts them in an even worse situation than they are already in. Sure the high tech useless gadgets were cool and they gave you the sense of security, but all that means nothing when you get your 30 notice to vacate.

As for their customers, I hope you are able to find a physically and financially secure home for your equipment. I would hope that you would not move with them to another facility. They did not care about you at all when they cut these sites. Dont think your well-being will be considered the next time they need to make cuts. When the poorly run companies fail, it hurts us all by getting thrown in with them. Whether you are a hosting company, ASP, or colocation company, if you have a niche and operate with a careful watch on costs, you will usually be profitable. Search for a company that is focused on making money, not making revenues at all cost.

Originally posted by DanielP
is there no end to the fun and excitement of all of these companies going belly up? (or as close as you can to it)


Exodus... Verio.... now Inflow..... geeze

You forgot WorldCom -- $2.00 stock price and their CEO left the company.

I'll stress what pvanmeter said.

Don't let them move you to another one of their facilities, if we have taken Verio's option to move us to their chicago facility we would have been SOL, because guess what, Chicago closed 2 months after their Denver center closed.

If you've gotta move, move somewhere stable.

Even if you go somewhere stable, you have to worry about upstream providers and their financials. The idea is to actually make money with this stuff (gasp) which with the current state of competition is nearly impossible in any level of business, but at the very edge (where most of us are, thank goodness!)

Drew