I'm moving from Managed Hosting to Colo, and was wondering what everyone's recommendations were. Preferably with a facility in Austin, but I'm open to suggestion.

It really depends on what your needs are. Depending on the type of bandwidth, amount of space, and type of facility features you require the price for co-location can vary drastically.

If you could provide more details about what you're looking for, I'm sure people can offer suggestions...

Well, let's see...

I have a particularly seasonal business, so bandwidth requirements are 10-60 Gigs monthly, so flexibility would be ideal. I'm really not expecting much service out of a colo - I'd like tape swapping service (2 onsite, 2 offsite ideally) and rebooting when necessary by phone. Backup power and redundant network facilities are a must, but I expect that once the network and power hit my boxes then it's up to me. I need about 1/3 - 1/2 a rack, and while security os always a concern I'm not super anxious that every person within a few feet of my machines is videotaped and fingerprinted.

Mosty what I want is simple - good network and solid power at a decent cost. Again, ideally in Austin if anyone knows good facilities here so that if I need to visit the box in person it's not a road-trip.

Was that enough or am I missing something?

You should check out affordablecolo.com. While they are in Dallas, it's not too far of a car ride :) Inflow also has facilites in Austin, but they can be quite expensive.

Thanks for the advice - useful so far. Here's another question along the same lines:

Given what I said I expect out of colo, what should I look for to differentiate a good colo from a bad colo? Power, network and HVAC systems are a given, but what else differentiates colos?

Hi FatBobo,
Depending upon your needs (ie reliability, redundancy, tech support, customer service, etc) there are many options for you.

If your site(s) is mission critical, I would make sure you use a host who has redundancy built into their services. Redundancy can be expensive so you need to determine the level of risk you are willing to take on compared to what you are willing to pay.

That being said, I would focus on things such as a redundant network (more than 1 provider), redundant routers (they do break), available bandwidth (if they are maxing out their connection with their providers, your server will suffer), the quality of the providers, the redundancy in the data center (power, ups, generator, cooling, etc). When looking at networks, all are NOT the same. There are top level providers such as UUNet, Sprint, AT&T, Cable & Wireless and many others. You pay for what you get. There are also less expensive providers such as Cogent, Qwest, etc. Their networks may also good in some areas, but their peering relationships might not be as good so if your end user is not in a good location, there might be a slower connection to the server. Again, you get what you pay for.

If your colocation host has only top level providers, you will pay more for bandwidth. You need to determine if this is important to you.

When it comes to power, make sure there is a UPS capable of handling the load until their generator kicks on. If they don't have a generator, don't go there.

More important than all of the items listed above is service. When everything is working well, it doesn't matter who the providers are, what the data center is made of or where it is located. When something goes wrong, how does the host handle the situation? Are they responsive to support? How quickly do they respond? Do they have a SLA? Even if they have a SLA, what has been their record for the past six or twelve months. They can promise all they want, it matter more what they deliver.

Before you make a choice, get references, do your homework, check the boards for information. When it comes down to it really doesn't matter if you save a few bucks per month if your connections are down.

Location can be helpful (being close to your servers) but if you had to choose, I would pick a provider with great support who is far away than one who is close and average or below average support. If your server goes down at 3 am do you have to drive far away and wait for someone to let you in or can you talk a tech through the problem on the phone. To me, I would rather pay a few bucks to talk someone through a problem than get dressed at 3am and drive to the data center for a 5 minute fix.

Also, how do they handle support? If you lock yourself out of your server, how long do you have to wait for someone to help get you back in? How long for a reboot.

just my $.02. Good luck.