Large hosting requirement

s0ck

s0ck

s0ck

Soldato
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18 Oct 2002
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Chaps,

Any ideas for a UK host to upload approx 300GB? Overall bandwidth usage after the initial would be low.
Ideally, should I need quick access to the data I'd like to be able to visit the datacentre as opposed to re-downloading it all.
I don't know how much of problem this might be though...

Cheers
 
Visiting the datacenter to grab your own data would generally only be possible if you're co-locating some equipment there. Fire off some emails to some reputable companies and see what they have to say... :)
 
What line will you be uploading this 300GB via? Should hope it's somewhere with at least 100Mb link :p

Loads of places will be able to satisfy your requirements, in fact, probably hundreds. Find the nearest data centre and go from there.
 
daz said:
Visiting the datacenter to grab your own data would generally only be possible if you're co-locating some equipment there. Fire off some emails to some reputable companies and see what they have to say... :)
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UK-Fast certainly have no problems with us visiting if we need to, and we don't co-loc.
 
I appreciate 300GB isn't that large in the grand scale of things, we deal mostly with SMB customers and I was thinking 300GB per customer. Most are barely 100GB.
Will have a squint where my nearest, tidy, DC is :D
 
You might want to consider what you actually need, if you simply want storage then there are some good providers based around webdav volumes and the like worth considering. Otherwise then any old provider can give you a server with a pair of 300GB drives, just watch you don't end up with some man in a shed outfit, professional hosting companies are worth the extra money.
 
paradigm said:
UK-Fast certainly have no problems with us visiting if we need to, and we don't co-loc.
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UKfast also pretend they own a datacenter... ;)

As said though, visiting a DC to pick up your data tends to be a bespoke requirement, so you'll just have to check with whoever you want to go with that it's possible.
 
daz said:
UKfast also pretend they own a datacenter... ;)

As said though, visiting a DC to pick up your data tends to be a bespoke requirement, so you'll just have to check with whoever you want to go with that it's possible.
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That's a good point, certainly we discourage people from visiting our datacenter space where possible, most customer don't get their own rack and in the more dense hosting facilities the racks are devoid of sides and doors anyway. Upshot is people have to be supervised if they visit, we don't have permanent presence at most of the facilities and where we do they have better things to do.
 
bigredshark said:
That's a good point, certainly we discourage people from visiting our datacenter space where possible, most customer don't get their own rack and in the more dense hosting facilities the racks are devoid of sides and doors anyway. Upshot is people have to be supervised if they visit, we don't have permanent presence at most of the facilities and where we do they have better things to do.
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So if I was to co-lo a server and I had a genuine need to import 150+GB of data every Tuesday and process that data on the server, which would probably take 4-6 hours,
can you see a data centre having an issue with it and what sort of solution could they provide ?

I'm literally about to start looking for a co-lo who can handle those circumstances.
 
phartars said:
So if I was to co-lo a server and I had a genuine need to import 150+GB of data every Tuesday and process that data on the server, which would probably take 4-6 hours,
can you see a data centre having an issue with it and what sort of solution could they provide ?

I'm literally about to start looking for a co-lo who can handle those circumstances.
Click to expand...

If you haven't got your own lockable space (usually minimum of a rack for this, generally, but you might get unescorted access to a lockable quarter or half rack) you will need escorted access which means you will have to pay for someone's time to be there with you.
 
phartars said:
So if I was to co-lo a server and I had a genuine need to import 150+GB of data every Tuesday and process that data on the server, which would probably take 4-6 hours,
can you see a data centre having an issue with it and what sort of solution could they provide ?

I'm literally about to start looking for a co-lo who can handle those circumstances.
Click to expand...

Well it depends how they're set up to be honest. Our problem (and why we discourage access where possible) is that the servers get racked in 47 U racks in our cages - none of the racks in the server cage have doors so once you're into a cage you've got access to virtually all the servers in there. Given that - as you'd expect - we don't like leaving anybody unsupervised so either an engineer stays with them on the server is unracked and the client can work on it outside of the datafloor.

For your solution you probably want somebody who can give you uncontrolled access - which probably means a quarter rack and that will not be cheap. More colo focussed providers might have other solutions but just bear in mind if you have easy unsupervised access to other people's servers when you visit, they'll likely have the same to yours. And to be honest I don't trust everybody in datacenters...

Best idea of the top of my head would be shipping them the drive to them, they plug it in and you work on the data remotely...
 
If the throughput after the initial 300GB is low why not just buy a slightly bigger pipe and host it yourself?

What is the purpose of this? Obviously the above is useless if it is for disaster recovery.
 
bigredshark said:
Well it depends how they're set up to be honest. Our problem (and why we discourage access where possible) is that the servers get racked in 47 U racks in our cages - none of the racks in the server cage have doors so once you're into a cage you've got access to virtually all the servers in there. Given that - as you'd expect - we don't like leaving anybody unsupervised so either an engineer stays with them on the server is unracked and the client can work on it outside of the datafloor.

For your solution you probably want somebody who can give you uncontrolled access - which probably means a quarter rack and that will not be cheap. More colo focussed providers might have other solutions but just bear in mind if you have easy unsupervised access to other people's servers when you visit, they'll likely have the same to yours. And to be honest I don't trust everybody in datacenters...

Best idea of the top of my head would be shipping them the drive to them, they plug it in and you work on the data remotely...
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. Un-racking and working on it on the floor/pop up table would be acceptable to me, despite the faff about, if that's what it would take to achieve the aim, so be it.
I'd be happy to pull the server on the Monday and return it on the Tuesday.

Shipping the drive isn't an option as the data has to be processed in a systematic, repetitive and b@ll achingly dull way. Doing it remotely isn't an option, either, even with KVM access
as each set of data will be loaded from 2 DVDs and there may be up to 20 sets.

Is there normally an access fee on a per visit basis ?
 
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Melbourne (in Manchester) charge £300+VAT per month for your own 11U of space.

You get 24 Hour unaccompanied access, facilitated by our online and text (SMS) access request system means you can access your servers day or night, without a prior appointment
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You've got bandwidth on top of that, plus you'd probably want a firewall appliance as, IIRC, those prices are just to have a RJ45 cable for you to plug into your kit.

2U of shared co-lo is £80/month. You can have access to your kit within 1 hour but the costs would soon probably pay for a 11u slice:

Technical support during office hours
£25.00 per half-hour block. Two x 15 minute incidents, per U of space, included free of charge every year.

Technical support out-of-hours
£50.00 per half-hour block 6pm - 10pm Workday evenings
£75.00 per half hour block at all other times.
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phartars said:
Thanks for that. Un-racking and working on it on the floor/pop up table would be acceptable to me, despite the faff about, if that's what it would take to achieve the aim, so be it.
I'd be happy to pull the server on the Monday and return it on the Tuesday.

Shipping the drive isn't an option as the data has to be processed in a systematic, repetitive and b@ll achingly dull way. Doing it remotely isn't an option, either, even with KVM access
as each set of data will be loaded from 2 DVDs and there may be up to 20 sets.

Is there normally an access fee on a per visit basis ?
Click to expand...

Depends, I imagine most hosting focussed companies will charge whereas the more general providers (ISPs who offer hosting) may not. I've seen both.
 
If you have a single server co-located, expect to get charged for someone's time to be with you whilst you access the server.

There's very little margin in co-located servers, so having to have someone sit/stand with you whilst you mess about with your server every week is not going to be profitable for them.
 
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