Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Colocation and Data Centers : What would you do differently now if you had the chance?

[TowerOfPower]

What would you do differently now if you had the chance, from where you started your own hosting business (and today are at the level of leasing full rack space for your servers)?

Any major mistakes, pitfalls, or turns that should be avoided?

What insights have you learned about datacenters, hardware, marketing, client type, financial matters, etc...

[adam5oh]

Hah!!! I feel like there are too many to count , but if I can give some sound advice it is to build as you go, not build it all first... it isn't "Field of Dreams". Also, focus on one thing first and do it well. Scattering out to other forms of income is fine down the road, but having a specific target audience and product is key to initial success.

____________________
-Adam Vierra
www.netriver.net
adam.vierra@netriver.net

[osopolis]

Be carefull with cheapness.

[dkitchen]

Originally Posted by osopolis

Be carefull with cheapness.

If you mean don't buy cheap equipment, seconded.

[tulix]

I would put more focus on sales, will use supermicro grade of servers (expensive but less heache, support) and in general would have mor invested in this business than I did originally.

[Rochen]

Put everything on our own hardware from day one.

[RyanD]

Originally Posted by Rochen

Put everything on our own hardware from day one.

Yes, and second/third the guys recomending quality hardware.

In our infancy we were badly burned by Sago when they had 36+ hours of "outage" that nearly crippled us, ever since then we've owned all our own gear.

[TowerOfPower]

Would you select a datacenter within driving distance of you? This seems like a critical point with me as there are so many benefits right here (assuming the DC is a major hub).

What type of hardware would you use?

Supermicro 1U dual node servers? Blades? Your own build?

Would you software raid-1 the main drives?

Would you try to separate out the storage into an array? SAN using iSCSI, InfiniBand; NAS using Ethernet?

Would you take advantage of the latest Intel SSDs that outperform the other SSDs by a factor of 2x-10x and use them for better I/O?

If you where doing VPSs, what would be the ideal hardware setup that you would now use? Assume you have a rack.

[USSHC_Colo]

I try to talk people out of using a data center that's too close just for geographic diversity. What good is hugging your servers if they're going to be affected by the same major outages or natural disasters?

Owning your own hardware is huge. I have seen too many issues with leased hardware that was done simply because of a lack of funds or reluctance to invest in the right hardware. They tend to be purchased on specs without regard to vendor quality and it comes back to cause problems later.

[tulix]

Originally Posted by TowerOfPower

Would you select a datacenter within driving distance of you? This seems like a critical point with me as there are so many benefits right here (assuming the DC is a major hub).

What type of hardware would you use?

Supermicro 1U dual node servers? Blades? Your own build?

Would you software raid-1 the main drives?

Would you try to separate out the storage into an array? SAN using iSCSI, InfiniBand; NAS using Ethernet?

Would you take advantage of the latest Intel SSDs that outperform the other SSDs by a factor of 2x-10x and use them for better I/O?

If you where doing VPSs, what would be the ideal hardware setup that you would now use? Assume you have a rack.

3 miles (now 10) from data center. would love to use blades, but getting better price performance with 1Us and using NAS over SAN (versus distributed - again cheaper).

Used VPS only for development, not for hosting - vmware and Microsoft.

To summarize - everthing else, except my first post would do the same.

[Host Our Web]

Originally Posted by adam5oh

Hah!!! I feel like there are too many to count , but if I can give some sound advice it is to build as you go, not build it all first... it isn't "Field of Dreams". Also, focus on one thing first and do it well. Scattering out to other forms of income is fine down the road, but having a specific target audience and product is key to initial success.

i could not agree more!

and we also ran into cheep hardware issues as well. Be ready to pay for things so you are not running around trying to replace hardware.

[vancouvercolocation]

Go after premium managed hosting - not shared hosting.

[elvis1]

Originally Posted by adam5oh

Hah!!! I feel like there are too many to count , but if I can give some sound advice it is to build as you go, not build it all first... it isn't "Field of Dreams". Also, focus on one thing first and do it well. Scattering out to other forms of income is fine down the road, but having a specific target audience and product is key to initial success.

____________________
-Adam Vierra
www.netriver.net
adam.vierra@netriver.net

sorry for the OT, but :the woman in the front page video is gorgeous.. you web is much better( very nic e actually) than it used to be

[adam5oh]

Originally Posted by elvis1

sorry for the OT, but :the woman in the front page video is gorgeous.. you web is much better( very nic e actually) than it used to be

Thanks, we like it too ... and I'll let her know your sentiments. Take a look next week when the virtual tour is up as well with her doing the walk through.

[sellingllc2008]

I would also be wary about getting a cheap price on things. Sometimes things are too good to be true.