colocation - any one have recommendations?

h2009

h2009

h2009

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I'm looking to place my server in a datacenter somewhere in the just outside of london ideally - but i was wondering if anyone has any recommendation/ 'stay aways' that they would like to mention.

At the moment im looking to minimize monthly costs, but still have very low network jitter/pings.

Im not too sure on the power needs of my server (IBM dont seem to have a good tool for calculating it)
My server is a 1U IBM 3550 7978 71G - 2x 3ghz, 2x 15k SAS 70gb HDD, 6gb ram, 2x PSU


Thanks for your help.
 
Just outside of London you have Bluesquare in Maidenhead (1, 2, 3, plus Rapidswitch's floor), there are a couple of big ones in Slough now (including Rackspace and Equinix), and you have Kent science park as well as Bluesquare MK... the other big area for internet connectivity in the UK is Manchester, which might be worth considering.

There are lots of very small datacentres too which are basically converted offices with some fibre connected... be careful if you go for one of these - specifically ask about network and power redundancy, as well as the SLA should anything go wrong.
 
Yeah there seems a crazy amount of fibre in the M4 corridor... it's becoming a mini-docklands with the amount of DCs springing up.
 
Yeah but most of them are just office style buildings with basic conversion done, some AC, some backup generators, etc. There aren't very many Telehouse quality facilities around there....

I'd stick with big names outside of london as they otherwise they tend to be short of carrier presence and I'd worry about the quality and resiliency of the power supply.
 
bigredshark said:
Yeah but most of them are just office style buildings with basic conversion done, some AC, some backup generators, etc. There aren't very many Telehouse quality facilities around there....
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Well that's why I mentioned Equinix Slough as well as Rackspace. :)
 
JonRohan said:
http://www.melbourne.co.uk/ are in manchester if its not too far away.

http://www.uksolutions.co.uk/ based in the midlands.
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Melbourne is just space in IFL, if you're going to do that, go to IFL direct and get a better deal and faster support response...

I'd vouch for Equinix, we use one of their sites one of our POPs and it's expensive (it's also slightly short of power) but good, remote hands tend to be responsive and actually know what they're doing (cough, redbus, cough).

I do wonder about their security at times though, I wonder in and out of that facility pretty freely (it's 5 minutes walk from the office so I use it for a lot of proof of concept projects) and they're a bit lax about signing equipment out (suits me day to day being able to walk out with a £4k switch under my arm without a word being said but the day something goes missing it'll be interesting).

I do like Verizon in Reading actually, it's a huge amount of space, quite free with power, lots of big name carriers (we have BT, Colt, Verizon, Neos and Fibrenet circuits there and I think NTL/Telewest have presence as well) and a reasonable location.

But Telehouse and the Level3 facilities in London are still the best going in this country I'd say...
 
I was very impressed by Level3 Goswell Road, it's just a hassle parking and moving equipment there etc. :)
 
Hi,

We're got kit in Viatel's Egham dc they've provided a good service & are currently upgrading some of there older suites, and we're currently looking at UKGrid in manchester.
 
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daz said:
I was very impressed by Level3 Goswell Road, it's just a hassle parking and moving equipment there etc. :)
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10 minutes walk from the office, everything gets couriered for us so doesn't worry me. They aren't bad, cross connects are a pain to set up but apart from that I have no major complaints...
 
I worked at Telehouse (and TelecityRedbus before them) some years ago. Telehouse is getting a bit old, but the facilities are excellent. Good luck getting any rack space though - it's packed to the rafters, although I heard rumours of a new building going up some time in the future ;) There are some good guys there working in the bridge should you need remote hands help too.

If you are concerned about security, the SFMs are a bit "open", but there seems to be a good trust ethic between customers in the shared areas. Newer places like Telecity will offer more "secure" cabinets, but at the end of the day, it's nothing a flathead screwdriver and a bit of technique won't get past ;)

We have some stuff racked at Telecity HEX and I must say they are pretty helpful when we need them. There have been quite a few power incidents/notifications going out in recent memory, though.
 
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