I'm on the lookout for a new datacenter to put my boxes at. So I'm in search of opinions.

Which datacenter do you favor the most?

Aspects to consider.
Price.
Location.
Security.
Reliability.
Support.

And please voice your opinion on some of these aspects if you can. Thank you in advance.

lol colo...:stickout

If i owned a hosting company, i would have gone with RackSpace San Antanio. Isnt that cheap but very stable :D

I like and we have had good experiences with NAC and Colo4Dallas.

Colo4Dallas is good. :D

Any of you heard of Telehouse, or IDTs place of operations?

If so, what do you think of them?

I'm very pleased with Hurricane Electric... the fact that they have a gigE line going to PAIX, less than a mile away from my house, doesn't hurt :D

In my country ( England ) , Telehouse has a very nice Data-Center in Docklands, London - Best place to be :)

NAC is good
InterNAP is Extreamly good !!

Prior to our own, and IF I didn't require ourselves to be within minutes of the Data Center, I would have chosen RackSpace.com

I've always admired RackSpace and have heard many compliments from those located there.

What about GlobalCompass or anyone else in 56marietta? I've always thought that 56marietta was the best place to be.

I think if you want the best of the best then any Inflow datacenter is the best place to be. Unfortunately their pricing is not always compatible with business plans ;)

http://www.meadgroup.com/ very nice facility. I have quotes for them around here somewhere.

voxtreme-matt,
How reliable is NAC? I know you are using it. How often do you have server problems? Downtimes. Just want to know. How often are the servers at NAC, for you at least, have to be restarted?

Also. I MAY be wrong but does burst has anything to do with NAC?

Thanks.

Pihana Pacific is a good choice, not the cheapest around though. Sometimes they have specials $850/mo for a full rack.

You will find their datacenters on the west coast and in Japan.

Originally posted by WebmastTroy
What about GlobalCompass or anyone else in 56marietta? I've always thought that 56marietta was the best place to be.

Global has made some BIG improvements just very recently.... the connections there are awesome.

They've done some big enhancements to their network:

http://www.globalcompass.com/network.htm

check out their bw graphs:

http://www.globalcompass.com/network-stats.htm

Depends on your answer to several questions....

Who is your target customer?

What is your level of experience?

Here, we see almost all the problems of any center exposed and sometimes lose perspective. For instance, no one mentioned DV2. Yet, I have servers with well over 100 days of uptime and have never been unable to reach any server I have there. No one has yet mentioned VO, but they also have a good reputation. Likewise, no one mentions Rackshack. Yet, they played a major role in lowering the pricing for all of us, regardless of where we are. And, for the right situation, they provide a true value. Other centers like Exchange in San Francisco and SDColo provide excellent service, but don't have many users here on the board. Rackshack has an impeccable reputation. Yet, for certain uses would be cost prohibitive.

Guess what I am saying is there is no perfect data center, but there are many excellent ones. To determine the one most appropriate for your use, you must first define your use and then evaluate against your requirements. For instance, Dixiesys and Deb decided they wanted if close at hand and have been very happy with their decisions. I, on the other hand, use centers throughout the country. Also, some centers may be great for a while and then deteriorate. Just don't get misled by the negatives on this board, as many of us are quite happy with our providers.

dialtone.com
cybercon.com

Originally posted by PhilKali
Any of you heard of Telehouse, or IDTs place of operations?

If so, what do you think of them?

Don't know about telehouse, but here in Newark NJ, we got IDT ( Which I did a multi-media deal with 2 years ago ) , I got a tour of some of thier facilities. Nice and clean and organized. plus they got some solid structure. Many pipes.

but if you can afford it. Go to Equinix, rent your own cage and place everything for self management. Expensive on the floor space but you have access to every real tier 1, tier2, and tier3 carrier ( AOL is a tier 2 or 3 I forgot ) and you can get some good peering arangement if you got a atleast 1 gigabit of transit ( about 1 solid oc -48's worth of transit ) or some very specific local transit then you don't need so much.

Mike

He.net =)

Nac I had very good network uptime

DV2 is promising as a stable network

But my money is on my own database under my desk =)

Other then ours,

Equinx , now that is sweet.

Originally posted by JBIZ718
Other then ours,

Equinx , now that is sweet.

do tell, I never hear anything about then that is not positive. the only bad thing is that they are expensive, but then again, they seem to be worth while.

plus if I reclal right you are in one of there cages.

Mike

My experience w/ INetU has been great. Their datacenter is 25 mins from me and I visited it twice... Very nice complex. Not cheap, not expensive, just right.

VERY friendly people on the phone to talk to...

I'd have to say the most impressive DC i've seen is the Verio premier datacenter in sterling.

Im taking a tour of ATT tomorrow, but i don't think they can come close.

Equinix is relativly expensive on a per rack charge or per cage charge. But keep in mind where you make up on the savings is the 60-70 carriers that are centralled in there datacenter.

Plus it is 100% neutral and premium. I do not have space there but have a few servers at a company called www.servercentral.net

One thing with equinix is though it may be more expensive you will never worry about power or connectivity in there.

U pay for what you get.

Originally posted by AceWeb
voxtreme-matt,
How reliable is NAC? I know you are using it. How often do you have server problems? Downtimes. Just want to know. How often are the servers at NAC, for you at least, have to be restarted?

Also. I MAY be wrong but does burst has anything to do with NAC?

Thanks.

NAC is pretty reliable, the odd outage here and there but nothing major, and speed is always very impressive....

Server reliability isn't really related to NAC, we've all had hds go bad, etc, but this is a hardware and not NAC issue.

For us, servers are restarted on a pretty infrequent basis, normally because we have no need to.

Burst, as far as I'm aware, doesn't have anything to do with NAC.

I aint no data center or NOC expert but I have experienced 200 days of 100% uptime at peak-10.com

Small but multihomed and when Jacksonville was hit by a power-outage [so I was told] their UPS adn gen's kicked in without a second's downtime

I am going to colo my 2nd dual p3 , SCSI server there

Equinix is very nice. Once I get the funds I'm thinking about getting a rack or two there unless IDT lives up to their expecations in the next coming months [I'm getting my own line with them, so we'll see how that goes]. I had bad experiences sharing lines with another clients, so hopefully this fixes it. I have a very good contract with them and the guys there are very friendly and prompt.

The type of datacenter I'm looking for is one that can handle MAJOR bandwith usage from my dedicated server for streaming and instant peaks up to 100mbps wihtout a single packet loss - ever. I know this DC exist, I just want to know who are some of my options. Price isn't an issue. Quality is what I'm after. Any suggestions?

Originally posted by voxtreme-matt
NAC is pretty reliable, the odd outage here and there but nothing major, and speed is always very impressive....


How can you call a network that has outages (be it major or not) a reliable network? A reliable network is the one that will give you 100% network uptime guaranteed under their SLA. That's the reason why we chose Internap and it's one of the most reliable network money can buy (no wonder their clients include American Airlines, NasDAQ, etc).

Since we moved to Internap, I have not been monitoring NAC at all, but a network that has outages here an there for any reasons can't be called a reliable network, not even 'pretty reliable'.

Dave,
Even tho Internap gives you a 100% SLA, does that mean they are any more reliable than NAC or a datacenter than doesn't give a 100% SLA? I thought reliability mostly dealt with redundancy, and don't understand how Internap with 7 providers can compare with NAC with over 75 providers?

Don't know about Inflow. I've read they are having problems, and their regional datacenter close to me appears to be almost empty.

Originally posted by MotleyFool
I aint no data center or NOC expert but I have experienced 200 days of 100% uptime at peak-10.com

Small but multihomed and when Jacksonville was hit by a power-outage [so I was told] their UPS adn gen's kicked in without a second's downtime

I am going to colo my 2nd dual p3 , SCSI server there

Glad to hear it. That's amazing since Peak-10 in Jacksonville, FL only uses 2 bandwidth providers I believe. Focalhosting uses them too. I know there's more to reliability than number of bandwidth providers, but that seems like the most important ingredient to me; but maybe I'm wrong.

Originally posted by chrisb
Dave,
Even tho Internap gives you a 100% SLA, does that mean they are any more reliable than NAC or a datacenter than doesn't give a 100% SLA? I thought reliability mostly dealt with redundancy, and don't understand how Internap with 7 providers can compare with NAC with over 75 providers?

Don't know about Inflow. I've read they are having problems, and their regional datacenter close to me appears to be almost empty.

NAC may have 75 providers, but they aren't all directly connected to their main DC. They are connected to their POPs, which connect to their main DC via a few fiber connections. Check their network map if you don't believe me.

EXODUS , EXODUS , EXODUS

Aspects that make them AWSOME .

Price is great for the service that they provide


Location, they are located all over the place. Around the world.

Security, Very secure facilities

Reliability, Their network is so so so reliable.

Support, TOP notch support.

www.exodus.net
www.myexodus.net

Originally posted by JTY


NAC may have 75 providers, but they aren't all directly connected to their main DC. They are connected to their POPs, which connect to their main DC via a few fiber connections. Check their network map if you don't believe me.

Oh, I believe you. I've looked at NAC's network map. Frankly, it seems either to be misleading because they group Tier1, Tier2, and Tier3's all together or maybe I didn't understand it. Thanks for shedding some light on the point of presence.

In the UK - docklands, Redbus Interhouse rules the roost.

Good facilities, price and access.
Very stable. Just taken a second rack with them ;)

Dave, in my opinion NAC has been reliable, and it has been reliable enough to base a large proportion of our business from.
I have no experience with Internap, but they seem to be good for you, so I'm glad to hear that.

What I would call unreliable is VDI a few months back, which I believe you went throuhgh too :)

Matt

Originally posted by chrisb
Even tho Internap gives you a 100% SLA, does that mean they are any more reliable than NAC or a datacenter than doesn't give a 100% SLA?


A datacenter that knows it can deliver 100% uptime will deliver 100% uptime. A datacenter that does not know whether they can deliver 100% uptime won't deliver it. On of the reasons why I decided to go with Internap is because they promise 100% network uptime. They probably will miss their uptime guarantee at some point, but this at least tells me that they are dead serious about keeping their promise by writting it on their SLA. Have not noticed one single second of downtime since we moved to them.

I thought reliability mostly dealt with redundancy, and don't understand how Internap with 7 providers can compare with NAC with over 75 providers?


BTW, it's 9 providers. You can achieve a redudancy with 2 carriers only (that's how yipes or inflow built their network). What good do those 75 providers give you if they can't even give you 100% uptime? Besides, Internap are directly connected to these nine providers, unlike NAC as JTY has mentioned.

Originally posted by chrisb


Glad to hear it. That's amazing since Peak-10 in Jacksonville, FL only uses 2 bandwidth providers I believe. Focalhosting uses them too. I know there's more to reliability than number of bandwidth providers, but that seems like the most important ingredient to me; but maybe I'm wrong.

Chris,

It's also a question of redundancy and quality of the data center equipment and the amount of commitment their staff have.

In my opinion small operators can score over large to really large players simply because of the manageability of a small operation as compared to a large one with 100-200 staff.

If I have to hire a sysadmin I will get the best. If I have to get 5 I will be lucky to get 5 very good people. What if I need 100 ?

Thanks for those insights, Dave and Motley. I wonder also if it is just as important that your host be located inside or near the datacenter.

i like rackshack.net :)
last time I visited their datacenter, it was awesome, lots of boxes, great power systems, good network overall.

most of all CHEAP pricing!

adding to what Motley said:

A small to medium size data center is going to offer more flexibility. Decisions do not have to go through some corporate chain of executives that have no idea how easy it is to run a cross-connect. People that you can have face-to-face contact with make decisions from these providers. Our center, and many of our competitors, allows easy access to carriers such as Tier 1 carriers, and a variety of providers that provide managed services using carriers of that quality. .

With bandwidth you can easily test the performance and this forum allows you to hear feedback from customers of most providers. With colocation many of the large carriers have spent money on perception. Many DCs in Dallas have beautiful entryways with marble and nice artwork. This adds nothing to your quality of the colo. Colo infrastructure is becoming a commodity. Liebert air, quality UPS, generator, raised floor and fire suppression are the same in most facilities. If you don’t have these features, you aren’t in a quality facility. You may be willing to live without some of these features, but you should expect to pay much less since your risk is so much higher.

Check out the smaller facilities and see what options they may have for you. Many will encourage you to get services from customers already in the facility. This is going to be good for you when you are a customer. If the facility offers bandwidth, ask what they are going to charge you for cross-connects to other providers. An ethernet connection to another provider should not be more than $50 per month. If they charge more, they are doing it to discourage you from buying from anyone but them. They compete buy making others difficult to do business, not by making them easy to do business with.

100% uptime is the only acceptable number for a colocation facility. 99.99% is almost an hour per year of down time.

Paul VanMeter
Colo4-Dallas

Originally posted by FHDave


A datacenter that knows it can deliver 100% uptime will deliver 100% uptime. A datacenter that does not know whether they can deliver 100% uptime won't deliver it. On of the reasons why I decided to go with Internap is because they promise 100% network uptime. They probably will miss their uptime guarantee at some point, but this at least tells me that they are dead serious about keeping their promise by writting it on their SLA. Have not noticed one single second of downtime since we moved to them.

BTW, it's 9 providers. You can achieve a redudancy with 2 carriers only (that's how yipes or inflow built their network). What good do those 75 providers give you if they can't even give you 100% uptime? Besides, Internap are directly connected to these nine providers, unlike NAC as JTY has mentioned.

I don't have thier SLA so I will comment on some different things that might not be covered:

force majure, and act's of god.
those are not covered. and I truely believe that they can give 100% to the datacenter. but more important to the SLA is packet drop rate and min. burst rate

It does not matter if you are connected, what matters is that you are connected at full spead all the time. when packets start dropping then you have to worry.

Mike

Originally posted by ADEhost
force majure, and act's of god.
those are not covered.


Almost nobody is covering this. Not even a car insurance. But they do cover what is under their control, and that's really what I care.


and I truely believe that they can give 100% to the datacenter. but more important to the SLA is packet drop rate and min. burst rate


Check Internap's Service Quality Guarantee (http://www.internap.com/products/sqg.html
)

Internap is very burstable. I have tested it by downloading ftp://ftp.uu.net/uumap.tar.Z on four different FTP sessions and the rate I got is around 24Mbps on each of them, or close to 100Mbps (my switch port).

It does not matter if you are connected, what matters was that you are connected at full spead all the time. when packets start dropping then you have to worry.


Very true ... and Internap is pretty good at delivering what they promised. Their clients list (http://www.internap.com/about/clientlist.html) is an evidence for their quality. That's why Internap is my favorite datacenter :)

IDT is great, we've had servers in both their Newark and Hackensack datacenters - I must say the newark one is alot better and much more impressive (however hackensack is still good)

at Newark they have a huge floor, airconditioned, caged, area. You have to get passed armed security guards at the bottom and then you have to be escorted through into the magnetic doors into the monitoring area then through another set of doors to the datacenter.

Hackensack is also guarded and manned 24/7 with keycard security on the datacenter. Bandwidth is all good and fast, people watching 24/7, you can call 24/7 for help. Id perfer the newark facilities, however its 50 minutes away, whereas Newark is 15-20 - we went last night, put a new server up and came back in less than an hour. Not bad :)

www.staminus.net for me, excellent service so far :agree:

I have to add a second for GC, great network speed and reliability. That is what we are paying for right?

-Robert

Catalog.com is okay.

They don't delete your server for spam complaints or terminate your account (unless you don't take action).

They don't use cogent.

Their tech support people will do more than just reboot or reinstall.

They're located in the dead center of the US.

Only thing they need is an uptime guarantee.

.

Acutehost,

You are a desperate little one. You get busted for telling lies so you go back and post on 3 month old posts. If anyone really cares about her post go read the current posts (December 11, 02)where she is upset she got caught in her fake story so she starts trying to attack the one that caught her.

Better stick with the day job. This idea of coming in anonymous and no one calling BS on you wont work here.