Curious about data-centres and co-location services...

[Broken Viking]

Hail all!
As some of ye know, I have a constant hex on the computing front as I often want to run a number of continual and high-bandwidth network services on a number of systems, and having a standard practice of shutting down everything and turning off the mains whenever I'm staying away for more than one night does make this a rather unworkable proposition at home.

As there are a number of things that I'd like to be able to run on stable machines 24/7 - Plus the fact that I might soon be starting up my own YouTube-esque site (Equals major bandwidth and storage requirements!) if I feel up to it - I'm considering the idea of shifting all of my network attached systems and applications to an off-site data centre, and having all of my 24/7 running executions taking place there insted.

Now I have to confess that I know little more about data centres beyond what they are and the services they often provide, but as I'd want to be using my own home built ATX-based equipment for the most part, I think that what I might be looking for is a co-location arrangement...Where I would be hiring space in a server cabinet (0.25x rack/10U should be plenty) and have all data, power, and building/services costs included in a monthly or annual rate.
As I'd be shifting equipment in and out and performing some maintenance by rail as well though, good proximity to a railway station and located within easyish reach of FNB would be useful.
I've already Googled up one rather good looking place over in Byfleet, but unfortunateley they're fully occupied at the moment.

The main reason that I'm posting this question here is more from my deduction/assumption that RailUK itself is probabally run on some kind of external hosting solution (Either that, or they have two darn good PCs and a reliable business broadband connection at home!) and just in case the site owner has the same approach to physically outsourced solutions as I do, thought I would ask for his advice and opinion, along with that of others here whom have used data centres in the past. 8)

From a brief poke at costs, it looks like a 1/4 rack rent is about £300,- or so a month, so this wouldn't be an immediate solution for me until I can get something going that would generate enough revenue to bring net monthly rental (That which I'd pay out of my own pocket) down to an more affordable £25,- a month or so. I've only been looking at e-business orientated data centres though, and if anyone knows of a smaller data centre geared towards recreational webmasters with lower costs, then I'd be interested to hear about them!

So...If anyone here has already had experience in using and/or working with data centres; What kind of things should I be looking out for, and are there ways - Given that in the immediate interim I'd be using the service for lightweight operations only - That I can have the cost knocked down? Also, are there any pitfalls that I should be aware of, and any companies of dubious reputation that I should avoid at all costs?

Farewell for now, and many thanks in advance for any advice!
>> Death <<

 

[Mojo]

Hi Death,

You are right that we have a host and this is all dealt with through them, but they use the Blue Square Data Centre in Maidenhead.

 

[Broken Viking]

Cheers for that Mojo...Incidently, the name "Blue Square" does ring a bell in my mind as well. I've got a feeling that 1&1 (My preferred domain host and registrar) might use it for some of their nameserver and customer webspace hosting.
Actually...What's the betting that Mojo now posts to say that RailUK is another 1&1 customer?

From my brief search earlier tonight, it would seem that Maidenhead is rather a crucible for ex-London data centres near the M25 - Although if my memory is correct the main UK Internet backbone passes through there, and such location of data centres would therefore be purely logical.

Unfortunateley for me though, Maidenhead would be a bit too difficult a journey for me to take by rail if I had to go up with four "new" servers (That is to say 4x PCs dug out of the skips at Farnborough WTC and refurbished at home!) and a bunch of HDDs that needed installation. I can handle a bit of equipment movement over public transport if need be, but could ye imagine trying to lug that lot around on the London Underground whilst changing stations in London?!?!? hock::razz:

 

[Mojo]

You could always go from Farnborough North and change at Reading?

 

[generalvegitable]

this listing may be helpful to you http://uk.tophosts.com/showcase-colocation-hosting.html if it isn't I know roughly where there are a couple of data-centres in London (one in the docklands developments near poplar and the other one is near liverpool street).

anyway these days servers can be very small indeed, in this image:here there are seven separate servers all running/doing different things. a server can just be a laptop without a screen/keyboard. you can even set up an Ipod to work as a web server! if you look at a host's site they usually tell you where their data-centre is, but beware a good host is hard to find and you may have to travel far from a railway to take your equipment to their data-centre