Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Colocation and Data Centers : Colo in San Francisco/Bay Area

[riverpast]

Hi guys,

This is not request for offers. I will do a request in 30 days.

I just want to know about the different data center in San Francisco, hosts, resellers, their quality of service and support, and what I should know about and what I should avoid.

I am mainly interested in SF colo, but may be interested in San Jose or Fremont colo, depending on the price.

Thanks.

ps, 1U server, 0.5 mbps bandwidth.

[UltdNetworks]

Fremont He, XO
San Jose XO
Exchange Colo
Level 3 Fremont/San Jose (Can't remember where, it's one of the two)

Just to name a few.

[snickn]

ColoServ is in San Fran also

[Kx-2]

He.net in Fremont - great bandwidth but go through a reseller to get a better price.

[riverpast]

Other than the big downtime some time ago at exchange, how's their quality?

[takiman]

It depends on the provider in exchange.. do you mean like if you were to buy a cabinet at exchange?

[riverpast]

OK, now the question is, who are some of the good providers at exchange? I want to co-lo a 1U server and only need 0.5mbps bandwidth.

[Mfjp]

You're probably better off at HE.net Fremont.

[ericabiz]

Originally posted by Mfjp
You're probably better off at HE.net Fremont.

Or at one of several other places in the Bay Area...

I love how people assume that eXchange Colo and He.NET are the only two places to colo in the Bay Area, when, in fact, there are many others.

-Erica

[riverpast]

I am in SF, and I prefer to be able to drive down the DC if necessary. However, if there is a big advantage colo at HE than eXchange, I will consider it.

[Mfjp]

I would pick HE if I were you. Or go MFN SJ3 with Erica. It's not that far to drive to San Jose.

[ericabiz]

Originally posted by Mfjp
I would pick HE if I were you. Or go MFN SJ3 with Erica. It's not that far to drive to San Jose.

Hehehe... thanks... although I wasn't just meaning that as self-promotion. There are several other datacenters around, too, including Level3 in San Jose, 365 Main in SF, XO in Fremont, and many others.

By the way, as my sales rep informed me the other day, "It's Abovenet now. Just Abovenet." (Now I have to go around changing our whole website... )

-Erica

[ericabiz]

Originally posted by riverpast
I am in SF, and I prefer to be able to drive down the DC if necessary.

I live in Pacifica, and it's about a 45-mile drive to Abovenet SJ3 (where Simpli calls "home".)

I don't find it to be that big of a deal at all. Even with 20+ servers, I'm down there once a week, max. (Our APC Masterswitches and remote hands agreement help tremendously.) We used to colo at a datacenter in SF (not one anyone has mentioned above) and I am really glad we moved to Abovenet because it's just simply a better datacenter.

Not to say that there aren't any good datacenters in San Francisco... but if you're only colocating a server or two, and especially if you have remote reboot ports available, physical access is really moot. Even if you do need to go down there, it's not really that big of a deal.

eXchange was down for 5 hours a month or so ago. I know one company who colocated major servers (as in, running thousands of dollars worth of transactions for their company) in a small datacenter in SF. Reason? They could walk down the street and fiddle with their servers. Their datacenter was down that day for 5 hours because something like 90% of that datacenter's traffic was funneled through eXchange. Their backup lines simply overloaded with traffic and fell over. This datacenter should have had its act together, but it didn't... and the company got burned because they picked proximity over quality.

Close proximity to the datacenter is overrated. There are many good datacenters in the Bay Area; don't sell yourself short just because one is closer than another.

-Erica

[Mfjp]

By the way. Still nobody have figured out who's at 1380 Kifer street SJC in Level3 to offer any kind of service.

[riverpast]

I have done some reading at WHT, and I have seen that HE got a good reputation, and eXchange did not (mainly because of the 5 hour down time?).

What I would like to see if a more detailed comparison. Why would you say HE (or any other DC) is better than eXchange? (other than that 5 hour down). Also, comparison of the costs would be nice too.

I guess if I can get a remote reboot port, it wouldn't be too bad to be hosted at Fremont or SJ, if the price is right.