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  1. #1
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    Good Colo Companies with Premium Bandwidth?

    Hey peeps,
    I am planning to buy a few rackmounts to co-locate at some place but I don't know where yet. I am currently looking for any location throughout the United States with excellent premium bandwidth, uptime, and support. Can anyone recommend me some?

    Thanks

  2. #2
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    There are several good datacenters in the US. Depending on where and what budget you have will determine alot.

  3. #3
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    I know they're plenty of places in the U.S. that are good, and knowing that I am looking for premium bandwidth means I am going to probably need to pay a hefty amount which I don't mind.

  4. #4
    A few you might consider are

    Internap
    Peer1
    NAC
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  5. #5
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    Oops, I forgot to mention I am looking for companies that have Premium carrier feeds to their datacenter. For example, like ThePlanet. But I am scouting for other companies besides them.

    Sorry, my fault

  6. #6
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    If you want the best Internap is usually on the top of that list.

  7. #7
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    You consider the The Planet to have premium carrier feeds?

  8. #8
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    I don't consider ThePlanet to have premium bandwidth, but I was using them as an example of what I was looking for.
    Last edited by TeKiZeRo; 03-02-2004 at 10:08 PM.

  9. #9
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    Originally posted by lostpacket
    You consider the The Planet to have premium carrier feeds?
    What? ThePlanet does not have premium feeds?

    At least IMHO, the best bandwidth is Internap! It does not come cheap, though.
    Fluid Hosting, LLC - Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure: Cloud Shared and Reseller, Cloud VPS, and Cloud Hybrid Server

  10. #10
    ... and planet dropped internap a while ago.

    paul
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  11. #11
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    I would go with Equinix. It's the best of all of our datacenters and you can get bandwidth from pretty much anyone there.

  12. #12
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    Agree with seka, if you need the best and you're on location, Equinix would be your best bet.

  13. #13
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    What about XO, does anyone consider their facilities top notch? Just curious!
    | Priority support (Since July 2001) | 99.9%+ uptime (Alertra stats available) |
    | Dual Xeon servers at local data center | Premium PEER1 bandwidth |
    | Visit us today | www.webulex.com |

  14. #14
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    Originally posted by wb-Edgar
    What about XO, does anyone consider their facilities top notch? Just curious!
    Having toured the XO Fremont facility, I would say... no. The guy I talked to who colocated there said they won't even give you a good uptime guarantee unless you run redundant lines to their routers and pay additional money (uh...yeah.) Also, he said there had been at least one network downtime in the past 3 months that was longer than an hour. No thanks. Premium facilities should have a 100% network uptime guarantee and stick with it. XO won't even guarantee 99.9% without redundant lines that YOU have to pay for.

    Their facility was poorly lit and had no raised flooring.

    I'd rather be at HE than at XO Fremont. That's saying a lot, as HE only has one generator (the staff there couldn't answer the question "What happens if this generator fails?") and I wouldn't consider them anywhere close to premium either.

  15. #15
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    Originally posted by Simpli-Erica
    That's saying a lot, as HE only has one generator (the staff there couldn't answer the question "What happens if this generator fails?")
    lol
    | Priority support (Since July 2001) | 99.9%+ uptime (Alertra stats available) |
    | Dual Xeon servers at local data center | Premium PEER1 bandwidth |
    | Visit us today | www.webulex.com |

  16. #16
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    ... and planet dropped internap a while ago.
    wonder why?
    Mike @ Xiolink.com
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  17. #17
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    raised floor?

    Originally posted by Simpli-Erica
    Having toured the XO Fremont facility.........

    clipped

    Their facility was poorly lit and had no raised flooring.

    hi simpli-erica
    why the negative on no raised floor - i am interested in your opinion on this. there are obviously two camps on this - I am in the "raised flooring is a hinderance" camp my self
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  18. #18
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    I consider Equinix IBX to be one of the best datacenter and at least on the two IBX I have visited, they to do no have raised flooring.

    Raised flooring is old and it no longer offers a unique advantage over non-raised flooring, more and more datacenters are built without raised flooring.
    Fluid Hosting, LLC - Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure: Cloud Shared and Reseller, Cloud VPS, and Cloud Hybrid Server

  19. #19
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    Originally posted by Simpli-Erica
    That's saying a lot, as HE only has one generator (the staff there couldn't answer the question "What happens if this generator fails?") and I wouldn't consider them anywhere close to premium either
    Speaking about diesel generator, I once visited MCI/WorldCom datacenter north of Boston. That was one of the best datacenters I have visitied. All I can see on that datacenter is redundant redundancy. They have six diesel generators, each capable of powering up the whole datacenter. Not sure why they want to put six of them together, but I am sure even if four fails, you still have the other two. No wonder that facility costs $80M to build.

    I will only get into a datacenter that has at least two or three diesel generators. Call me paranoid if you would like
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  20. #20
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    What about XO, does anyone consider their facilities top notch? Just curious!

    Please see the many other threads on XO.

    On the technical side there's disagreement as to whether XO's network is average (abovenet level) or poor (Cogent level), but most agree that XO's service and sales are terrible and that if anything goes wrong it may never be corrected.

  21. #21
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    *

    Whether or not XO has a well-run IP network (and their poor-by-design IGP costing method tells me a few things about XO's level of engineering competiance); if you order service from them it'll be months before it can be delivered, if at all, even if you are in their own facility. I am an XO customer, and can speak to this with direct experience.

    I'd like to know if Seka is or has ever been a direct customer of Cogent. As I've recently posted on another WHT thread, the "Cogent stigma" is created entirely by unhappy downstreams of Cogent, rather than their customers. They are easy to blame because everyone in the hosting industry associates them with fly-by-night hosting outfits that buy a 100Mb/s port and saturate it. That's not the fault of Cogent. I wish folks would consider that before bashing them on public forums. :-)
    Jeff at Innovative Network Concepts / 212-981-0607 x8579 / AIM: jeffsw6
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  22. #22
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    Re: raised floor?

    One argument ("sales pitch") is that a raised floor protects against human error. With network cables and power running both overhead and below, it is impossible for a tech to cut both feeds of a redundant wire. (Humans can't reach both under the floor with one hand and above their heads with the other)

    Given that human error is actually the most probable cause of run-of-the-mill outtages/errors, it is a very interesting argument for having raised floors.

    Note: for "tech" think "clueless butt-crack electrical contractor" and you start to see the picture...


    Originally posted by sailor
    hi simpli-erica
    why the negative on no raised floor - i am interested in your opinion on this. there are obviously two camps on this - I am in the "raised flooring is a hinderance" camp my self

  23. #23
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    Raised flooring simplifies cooling as well as providing another route for cable runs. If you have spent time in datacenters both with and without raised floors, you'll probably recall that those with raised flooring were more comfortable to work in than those without.

    Why? The chilled air is pumped under the raised floor, and vented floor tiles are used under cabinets or relay racks to allow cool air to flow through them. In a facility without this type of cooling system, the ambient temperature has to be lower, and air circulation rates higher, to keep cabinets full of equipment at a reasonable operating temperature.

    Raised floors are also grounded carefully, unlike concrete slabs; and it's typically a bit easier to route electricity under a raised floor, and data cables in overhead cable ladders; though that is not what's always done. If you tour an Equinix IBX, you'll notice the power distribution conduits are up higher than the cable ladders. AC power can induce noise in nearby copper circuits.

    There are some advantages to raised flooring, but it's not really a necessity. I'd be much more concerned about the lack of a 3-nines guarantee and the admission of an 1 hour outage in the last 3 months.

    Often, folks don't think about how much downtime the three or four nines they get really is. 99.9% uptime per month still allows for 2,592 seconds / month of downtime. webair's guarantee of 99.99999999% uptime (check their WHT posts!) allows for about 3 milliseconds of downtime per year.

    Whether or not you actually receive that level of uptime is another issue, but be sure you look at SLA compensation for downtime in excess of the guaranteed maximum, provisions for frequent-but-brief outages, and how each provider measures an outage. It's of no help if they measure it by saying "the backbone is up" if their aggregation switch, which your server or cabinet connects to, goes down! :-)
    Jeff at Innovative Network Concepts / 212-981-0607 x8579 / AIM: jeffsw6
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    95th Percentile Explained Rate-Limiting on Cisco IOS switches

  24. #24
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    Originally posted by jsw6
    Raised flooring simplifies cooling as well as providing another route for cable runs. If you have spent time in datacenters both with and without raised floors, you'll probably recall that those with raised flooring were more comfortable to work in than those without.
    Actually I would have to disagree a bit here. Yes, raised floor may give you additional cooling for your racks, but that's not all. I visited both Equinix/Secaucus (275 Hartz) and CW/Jersey City (34 Exchange Place). Equinix is one datacenter that does not use raised-floor and CW is another datacenter that does use raised-floor. So it's great to compare the two.

    Equinix/SC:
    - no raised-floor
    - great cool air enforced from above
    - high ceiling (~30 feet from floor to ceiling)
    - generous space, ~22 sq.ft per cabinet. Works great for additional cooling

    CW/JC:
    - raised floor
    - cooling from above and below
    - short ceiling (at most 15 feet from floor to ceiling)
    - not so generous space, very cramped. ~14 sq.ft per rack

    When I was in those datacenters, Equinix/SC feels cooler than CW/JC. At least, I don't think it's any hotter than CW/JC. In fact, I was standing next to a cage with multiple cabinets full of 1 U servers, each cabinets taking 80 Amps of power. Don't even feel a temperature gradient coming from this cage. Also a quick observation, the cabinet/rack density in EQ/SC is quite a bit higher than that of CW/NJ.

    The high ceiling on EQ/SC does help a lot. It's a great place for a high density solutions.

    So, yes ... raised flooring can give you additional cooling, so as high ceiling, extra spaces in the datacenter, etc.

    Why? The chilled air is pumped under the raised floor, and vented floor tiles are used under cabinets or relay racks to allow cool air to flow through them.
    Sometimes I wonder whether this is really effective. I wonder whether the fans on the top of my cabinets are doing anything, once I used the last few spaces on the top of my cabinets. The air flow seem to have been blocked by my server. Similarly on the bottom. Will the air flow be really effective once I fill my cabinets with 44 1U servers?

    There are some advantages to raised flooring, but it's not really a necessity. I'd be much more concerned about the lack of a 3-nines guarantee and the admission of an 1 hour outage in the last 3 months.

    Often, folks don't think about how much downtime the three or four nines they get really is. 99.9% uptime per month still allows for 2,592 seconds / month of downtime. webair's guarantee of 99.99999999% uptime (check their WHT posts!) allows for about 3 milliseconds of downtime per year.
    Not quite sure how raised floor has anything to do with uptime guarantee. Telehouse has raised flooring, but their uptime falls below Internap with no raised flooring, something that they themselves have acknowledged.

    Another thing, what happens when a water sprinkler turns on and wet/soaked the space under the raise-floor? When I am touring Equinix, this is something that the engineer mentioned, the fact that they do not have to worry about any cables getting soaked wet.
    Fluid Hosting, LLC - Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure: Cloud Shared and Reseller, Cloud VPS, and Cloud Hybrid Server

  25. #25
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    Re: raised floor?

    Originally posted by sailor
    hi simpli-erica
    why the negative on no raised floor - i am interested in your opinion on this. there are obviously two camps on this - I am in the "raised flooring is a hinderance" camp my self
    Raised flooring has two distinct advantages:

    1) Redundancy. You can run cables both above and below for complete redundancy. If someone comes in and hacks off the top half of your building, you are still fully operational. (Yes, AboveNet guarantees this [I got that quote directly from their facilities manager], and I'm sure they are not the only one.)

    2) Cooling with less effort and better prevention against leaks. All chilled water from the chiller system goes under the floor, so if there is a leak, it drains directly under the floor. There is no effect to servers if there is a leak in the chiller system. Also, cooled air can be forced up through the floor, making it much easier to circulate. Remember that AboveNet has open telco-style racks, not cabinets, so this makes cooling much easier as well. The datacenter we are in is kept at a cool 68 at all times. In comparison, XO Fremont runs about 70-71, and HE (which made the mistake of assuming that 30-foot ceilings would do most of the cooling for them) is running at a HOT 74. (Yes, 74!!!)

    Quote Originally Posted by FHDave
    When I was in those datacenters, Equinix/SC feels cooler than CW/JC
    The raised-floor style cooling scales better and more easily. I'm not arguing that it's not possible to cool without raised floors, but it takes less effort to scale with raised-floor cooling.

    Quote Originally Posted by FHDave
    Speaking about diesel generator, I once visited MCI/WorldCom datacenter north of Boston. That was one of the best datacenters I have visitied. All I can see on that datacenter is redundant redundancy. They have six diesel generators, each capable of powering up the whole datacenter.
    I wouldn't expect anything less. The datacenter we are in has 7 generators. Two are required to run the datacenter at full capacity. Right now, the datacenter is 37% full, so only one is required. I got to be there a couple of weeks ago when they fired one up to test it... it was NEAT. You can't even go in there without wearing industrial hearing protection, and when it starts, the air rushing around you (being sucked out by a 12'x12' fan that covers the entire front of the generator's building) is vibrating (it makes your arms feel strange.) The generator sounds very similar to a jet engine starting up. It's an incredible experience to watch.
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