NTS Communications in Lubbock Tries CoLocation
After the NTS Communications sales reps ran into some problems helping me with a quote for T1's, I inquired about colocation at their NOC in Lubbock. I've looked at putting servers at ServerBeach, Kattare, and RackSpace in the past, so I was familiar with the pricing and the market. After all, it may be easier to put the servers at a local facility, rather than hosting them at our location.Daryl (or Darrel or Darrell) called me back and asked me what I wanted. The conversation went about like this (D is him, M is me):
D: "What can I help you with?"
M: "I'm interested in getting some information about colocation at your NOC"
D: "We do that. What is it you want to do?"
M: "We are developing some web applications, and rather than bringing in the data lines, I'm looking at options for hosting servers elsewhere."
D: "We do that. What are you going to do?"
M: "Um ... we are going to host web applications. Probably 2 servers."
D: "We do that. Do you know what U is?"
M: "Yes."
[Note: A U is a measure of height in rack space. It's not very tall, but is 19" wide, and quite deep.]
D: "We charge $100 per U."
M: "Ok."
D: "How many U's do you need?"
M: "I suppose we'll need two U's, for two different 1 U server's."
D: "Well, we can do that. We have a Halon system, redundant backup generators, and physical access, and everything you'd get at any other data center. You just need to provide the servers, and UPS's."
M: "UPS's?"
D: "Yeap. That's for your protection."
[Note: Most data centers provide UPS's. In fact, this is the only one I know of that doesn't.]
M: "Well, UPS's are usually taller than 1U [at least consumer-grade UPS's are]. Do they take up 2 U's, or can they go on the floor?"
D: "They take up 2 U's, unless you get the more expensive kind. So, that's 4 U's that you are up to."
M: "Ok. How much?"
D: "Well, it depends on what you need. If you'll tell me exactly what you need, I can get you a custom quote."
M: "Um ..... ok."
M: "I guess that's it. 4 U's of space for 2 1U servers, and 1 or 2 UPS's"
D: "Well, I can give you one cable to plug in. You'll need more than one. Do you have a router, a switch, or a firewall?"
M: "I thought you said I just needed the servers. What other equipment do I need to provide?"
D: "Well, you'll need a firewall / router, which we can put on the same shelf."
M: "Um, ok. What else?"
D: "How much bandwidth do you need a month? We can go up to 100Mbps"
[Note: The question and the unit of measure are totally different. He basically asked how tall I was, then went and computed the sun's gravitational force on me.]
M: "Um, just around 100-200GB / month"
D: "Are you serious?"
M: "Yes."
D: "Well, what you do with the bandwidth is up to you. Will 3Mbps be enough?"
M: "Yes. 1.5 would probably be fine."
D: "Ok. Hang on."
D: "Well, that will cost you right at $1,000 per month."
M: "Wow. That's a lot."
D: "Well, we can bring out two bonded T1's to your location for $800 / month"
Can you tell which product they are in the business of selling?
[Note: Colocation of 2 U's from Kattare with the necessary bandwidth, etc... would cost me about $230 / month. Also, for $1000 / mo, I can bring in an OC3 or DS-3, and get 3Mbps, up to 45Mbps. I can also get 3 bonded T1's from SpeakEasy for $989, which would be 4.5Mbps].
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