[BlueOnyx:11934] Re: Need a new host, and FAST

[Chris Gebhardt - VIRTBIZ Internet]

My goodness, you guys sure know how to make a fella blush first thing in 
the morning.   Very kind of you all to make such nice comments.   I'm 
sure that we can help the OP out with his current issue.

Actually, it reminds me quite a bit of our own VIRTBIZ history.  Read 
on, only if you're interested.

<story time>

As a matter of fact, we've been in a similar situation.  Back in the day 
when all we wanted to do was be a little web hosting company, I got a 
heads-up from an employee at the datacenter we were colocated at that 
they were going belly up, hadn't paid the bandwidth bills, and it was a 
matter of days before everything was to be turned off.  At that time we 
had 2 racks of gear, and a lot of that equipment was RaQ3/Raq4 running 
the 550 OS we had bought from Gerald at Front Street.

We found a good deal on a cage at another datacenter that was much too 
big for us, but the price per rack would really be great.  I made 
contact with the other customers at the failing datacenter as well as 
the management of the failing datacenter and we arranged to consolidate 
a good deal of their customers into the cage that we had found.  So we 
went from a 2 rack installation to a 6 rack installation pretty much in 
one day.  Of course, we had to buy the racks, a router, some switches a 
bunch of Cat5 and then truck everything over to the new location.

We were very happy there for a few years and grew to 4 more racks and 3 
"bakers racks" for towers.   Then when our contract came up we learned 
it was going to be substantially more money.  Our provider had been sold 
to another company, and the landlord at the big multi-tenant building we 
were in had raised the rent.  Those costs were being passed along.

At that point, we were also starting to put some equipment (not quite a 
full rack's worth) in another facility across town and they were making 
noises about closing up shop.  Since we were already handling a good 
deal of their support on a part-time contract basis, the owner asked us 
if we would be interested in taking over.

It was at that time that we decided it might be a good idea to look for 
some property of our own and build a datacenter ourselves.  From 
scratch.  How hard could it be?  (Don't ask that. Ever.)  We've been in 
some of the finest datacenters and we know that NO datacenter is 
completely immune from trouble.  But at least if we are in charge of 
100% of what's going on, we'll know we always get straight answers and 
there won't be any motivation problems to get things set right in the 
event of trouble.

So in 2007 we found a great building for sale with fantastic access to 
loads of fiber and heavy power.  It was a big old warehouse, solid 
masonry construction with solid walls more than a foot thick, elevated 
floor level making it impervious to flood, and a reinforced roof deck. 
We bought the building in July and by November had begun to move in our 
first customers.

I would be lying to say it has all been easy.  And since we have been 
entirely self-financed (we are a family-owned and -operated business and 
have no patience or use for "investors") there have certainly been some 
lean times.  But we're now occupying 10,000 square-feet of space.  I 
honestly don't have a good rack count in my head anymore.

And perhaps most importantly (to me, anyhow), we are still a small 
company.  We remember what it was like to be "at the mercy" of our 
providers.  We know what it's like to feel ignored.   Nobody likes that. 
  So we really do our best to make sure that, since we're now the 
provider, our customers don't feel that way.  Some of our customers pay 
us $5,000/month in hosting fees, others pay 1/100th of that.  And then 
again, we still have our basic web hosting customers paying us around 
$6/month.  We try to treat every customer with the same respect and 
importance.   Ah... I know.... warm fuzzies.   Cut me a break, you guys 
put me in a warm fuzzy mood this morning.

</story time>

And now.... COFFEE!

-- 
Chris Gebhardt
VIRTBIZ Internet Services
Access, Web Hosting, Colocation, Dedicated
www.virtbiz.com | toll-free (866) 4 VIRTBIZ