I'm embarking on a new project that will do some intensive data crunching. We've decided to buy our own servers for operations and development. But we need somewhere to put them that will provide us high bandwidth and a unique IP.

Any suggestions of where to go?

Thanks

    bradgrafelman wrote:

    rackspace.com

    Where is their NOC (more than one, perhaps). Main is in TX, right?

    cgraz wrote:

    MediaTemple

    West Coast.

    piersk wrote:

    Telecityredbus

    Europe, right?

    stolzyboy wrote:

    theplanet.com

    TX again.

    In these days of millisecond communication, it may not matter, but New York Internet <nyi.net> is on your side of the states, just up the coast, and has usually got the top response times and availability on the Netcraft surveys. It could be that hops still make a difference (I'd sure not want to clutter the Atlantic cables).

    Even better might be some place around DC/Reston, but I dunno that Netsol would be a viable player in that game, much as they want to be. Most of the places listed above are better at support and a tad more trustworthy IMHO.

      5 days later

      Thanks for the great links and suggestions. Is it generally better to buy my own machine and put it on a rack in some NOC or rent a dedicated server from a hosting company? I ask this from a financial, maintenance, and long-term perspective.

      Thoughts?

        I tend to lean towards a managed server that you rent from a hosting company so you don't have to worry about replacing hardware should something fail.

          Definately agree with the managed server part. Often they will do all sorts of monitoring for you and it means that you don't have to trek all the way to the server to fix something. in fact you won't even have to pay for the hardware should it fail!

            14 days later

            Definitely go for their managed server rather than co-locating your own. Personally I don't think where the NOC is matters, up the road or on the other side of the planet is immaterial. What matters is the quality of the service, and the price of course.

              Managed.

              I think customer service is a big deal, and I can whole heartedly recommend http://m5hosting.com in San Diego. If you have your stuff in a rack and the people either drag their feet on issues, or even worse don't know what the heck their doing, you're gonna pull your hair out (and waste money). Its happened to me when working on clients stuff hosted elsewhere (eg: softlayer).

                Yeah if you plan to manage those servers, you should get a big fat raise because you'll probably be getting up in the middle of the night with your phone ringing. That and losing sleep over dns weirdness and other nagging issues.

                  Something you might be interested in is The GridLayer by Layered Technology. It's essentially your own cluster of servers, running as many virtual items as needed. Take a look at it. It's really really neat.

                    I think I speak for everyone here when I say don't go with 365main...

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