Fellow WHT'ers!

In your opinion, what are the "best" providers of dedicated servers - with a volume/reseller discount? I do not want to go through a reseller or third party myself, so I'm looking for "tier 1" providers.

As a company, we're looking at moving into the hosting industry, as well as consolidating our development clients onto our own hosting. Currently, they're spread out over tens (if not hundreds) of different hosts. This is an absolute nightmare maintenance wise. Previously, our customers chose the hosting - we merely managed their application/service.

Our client base is growing exponentionally, as we are now expanding beyond local/national businesses. We're intending to target the global SME market, as well as going after new start-ups.

Our current estimates put us with needing roughly 12 - 24 (depending on specification) servers to begin with, with our server base doubling roughly every 3 - 4 months.

We're looking at sourcing from more than one supplier, so it would be nice to get some recommendations of providers in Europe, the United Kingdom, America - and various other locations. Providers with a trial option would be nice, so we don't have to drop a "bomb" to begin with, only to be burned in the future.

So, suggestions?