Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : How important is the data center to choosing a host?

[McSpin]

From testing, I've come to the conclusion that I get extremely fast page downloads from a host in the Equinix Center in VA. I'm in Western NY. I don't know if this data center is better than most or if I just happen to be in an ideal location for their service.

I have a business that gets orders from the whole U.S., but a majority are in the East, especially the NE. Visitors come from everywhere in the U.S., but I'd like to keep the buying customers happiest.

Page download speeds are very important to me and I'd like to keep them as fast as possible for my customers. How important is the data center used by a host going to be to my decision? Also, is there a way to find webhosts from a particular data center? Manually going to webhost sites to find out if they have servers in the Equinix center has been painfully slow.

[cristibighea]

It matters what kind of connectivity the data center has to offer, as you might be able to get good speeds even from non-equinix DCs.

[Panopta]

Within the US, there isn't a huge difference in latency based on geographic location - you'll notice some difference between east and west coast locations if your customers are largely in the northeast, but performance depends much more on the quality of the datacenter's connectivity - make sure they have redundant connectivity to the major network providers and you should be fine.

[SingleHopChris]

Are you looking at a shared hosting plan with a company at that DC or your own dedicated server. If you're looking at shared hosting, speed tests may not be accurate depending on the host's overselling practices.

[McSpin]

Originally Posted by SingleHopChris

Are you looking at a shared hosting plan with a company at that DC or your own dedicated server. If you're looking at shared hosting, speed tests may not be accurate depending on the host's overselling practices.

I'm looking at shared hosting, but not at cheaper plans. Many of the providers will give you a test file to download but will not direct you to websites that reside on the server. I definitely will not judge them based on the test file only.

I'm concerned with quality and can justify spending up to $30-$40/month. I've decided to stay away from oversellers and I want a host with highly rated service. I need to have at least 1 GB disk space and 15 gb bandwidth per month. I want my customer page downloads to be snappy, especially during peak usage times. I've found a few that seem to meet these criteria, but judging the performance my customers will get is very difficult for me to do. I'm not sure I'm even looking at the right things.

My current host gives me the great speed and reliability (it comes out of the Equinix in VA), but they are very restrictive in what they allow and I'm afraid they may suspend my account without notice if I use too many resources, or add a feature to my site that they consider too resource intensive. I also have 3 domains that I'd like to run from one shared account, which it appears some allow. My current provider does not. The other two domains get very little use and are a waste of money on separate shared accounts.

I'm trying to figure out if I get my current great speed because of my location, the datacenter used, the lack of overselling by my current webhost or some other reason. I'm not really concerned with speed to my location. My customers' speed is more important, but I can't figure out how to rate these things.

[~ServerPoint~]

I think that VPS is the solution you are looking for. Use offers sectuion here for your search.
Good luck.

[Energizer Bunny]

Originally Posted by ~ServerPoint~

I think that VPS is the solution you are looking for. Use offers sectuion here for your search.
Good luck.

Lols really ? What makes you say that ? I see no reason yet as to why user will be needing a vps , a good reliable shared host will be good enough for user, unless you personally know him and know what kind of site he will be hosting.

PS: colo4dallas i have seen so far as the best solution and location (almost central to US).

Gnax might be good too, but those are like dc's not shared hosts !!

PS: just avoid overselling packages you see popping up all the time !! & u shall be good

[3DProf4online]

Personally, I have never pay attention to the datacenters when choosing host and everything is always ok!

[McSpin]

Originally Posted by ~ServerPoint~

I think that VPS is the solution you are looking for. Use offers sectuion here for your search.
Good luck.

I'm not familiar with what advantages a VPS offers. What will it give me that a shared account can't? Are the servers guaranteed to not be oversold? Are they faster for some reason? Does it take more knowledge to run (I'm a business man, not a computer wiz)?

[cristibighea]

VPS or virtual private server is sort of like a piece of a dedicated server. The resources it has are indeed dedicated, but since it lacks the full 'power' of a dedicated server it will naturally be cheaper. It would take pretty much the same knowledge as a dedicated server to run, or a colocated server, given that you were to have an unmanaged service.

[maniakaz]

...and I started to pay attention. My websites were on one server - and they rather slow from Lithuania (I think it made no difference i the US). I asked to move my 2 sites to Chicago - and the speed increased.
I think it proves attention must be paid to the location of the server.

[dave-dave]

I usually never pay attention to data centers. As long as they're in the same country, speed doesn't really get affected unless you're all the way across the country, but usually less than a second, if that, is sacrificed by location.

[markjut]

I'd say that as long as its a decent datacenter (ie not located in someone's bedroom) it shouldbe fine.

[RossMAN]

Originally Posted by McSpin

My current host gives me the great speed and reliability (it comes out of the Equinix in VA)

Just curious, who's your current web host?

[ephasenetworks]

I think speeds are primarily based on how far away you are from the datacenter itself, however, most larger datacenters offer a large enough network to cover the continental U.S. with no issues and can serve a majority of the world with excellent speeds as well.