We’re looking to expand into a third datacenter for WordPress.com and related Automattic stuff. I’ve been asking around for quotes, but it occurred to me I should blog what we’re looking for because someone reading might be able to provide what we need, or know someone who could. One line summary of what we’re looking for: 22 boxes, AMD 3800 or similar, cheapest HD, 1-2gb of RAM, Debian AMD64 (this is important), private and public 100mbps network. I’d be happy to post more info in the comments if anyone wants it. A per-server monthly price including space and bandwidth is what we’re looking for.
I would definitely take a look at http://www.liquidweb.com — I use them and I’ve had a *great* experience with them, good prices too.
Cool I’ll contact them.
Matt – you looking dedicated or would you consider VPS? We mightbe able to help out by giving you 22, 1gig Slices (AMD64). Contact me to discuss.
Bandwidth requirments?
IIRC, both sites are now in the south and southwest US. Do you have anywhere you would rather be at? Say east coast?
Something East coast would be nice, but not a requirement.
I can recommend defender hosting. I use one of their sister companies, which i’m very pleased with!
Worth an email anyway 🙂
Matt, SF based ServePath has treated us well and their network is incredible. I have a personal server hosted down in LA at CalPop.com
Globix has always treated me well.
Now we have all confused Matt what he shall take… Hehehe… 😉
I have realized some “Connection: close” messages in my browser when I click on photomatt.net but this can also be my privoxy/tor combination.
FastServers (.net) has been good to us over the years, and they have (I believe) the cheapest bandwidth rates around (if you pre-pay, of course).
Contact Tim of asmallorange. Great service there.
Matt — I would seriously recommend http://cari.net — I already use them to host several dedicated servers. Great tech support & they have extremely fast connectivity & servers they also offer server clusters. Check them out.
Is AMD a must ? I can make you a nice deal on Dual Xeons. With Debian or FreeBSD (my pref). Hit me up if you want to talk.
Matt… I’d recommend that you not skimp on the hard drives.
They don’t have to be SAS, but at least go with something reliable.
Hard drives always die. It’s a question of “when” not “if”.
That said, I’d talk to the guys at Peer1 – they are an excellent company and have great connectivity.
If they are too expensive maybe give the guys at Magma in Canada a call.
Of course there are always the usual suspects as well, but you can find them easily enough.
I’ve got a great suggestion for a colo place, but it sounds like you need a dedicated server host? i.e. you will use the host for not only traffic but buy the boxen off of them too?
Matt, I know a very good East Coast datacenter which may be just what you’re looking for. 🙂
Contact Ran Networks: http://www.ran.es/servidores_lin.htm
So why not TextDrive?
Why not look to European servers as well, leaseweb.com & other major hosters in Germany do a great job.
I’m using hostdime.com; they are very good, especially the support is almost exceptional!
Got an email from Globix this morning that they are selling the NY location. So I rescind my recommendation.
We already have servers with Textdrive. Thanks for the suggestions guys, I’m contacting them all.
That’s what I thought; I just didn’t know you were branching out. Sorry for the added fluff.
I can recommend pair Networks in Pittsburgh http://www.pair.com — however they only offer FreeBSD servers but maybe they can accomodate a rack of Debian boxes… pair provides excellent service and value at a great price.
I can also recommend Gotham Bus Company in New York http://www.gothambus.com/ — I used to co-locate 4 or 5 servers with them before I consolidated all servers here in Belgium.
If you’d like to get a European data center, then contact Perceval in Brussels http://www.perceval.be — they’ve been our European upstream provider and co-location partner for the last 11 years.
Pair has issues with dealing with spam and /dev/null’s complaints.
Gothambus only has a pair of 100mps lines to the net. We’d flood those in a day I’d bet.
We’ve done business with Cyberwurx.com hosting since 1999 and currently have several dedicated servers with them. Dependable, professional, fair prices and great support from knowledgeable techs that have been in the business for years. They host some large blogs out there too so they understand what you are doing. Tell the owner Chris that I sent you, Matt. I already contacted him with a link to this post so he’ll be looking if you decide to contact him.
I think the reason Matt mentioned the cheapest harddrives is because they will likely not be storing any important data for the long term, and anything it does store will be replicated to other offsite servers, and so replacing failed harddrives occasionally is much cheaper than dishing out for a rack full of expensive harddrives.
If you want something in Europe/London I can recommend Bytemark; technically savvy and a very helpful bunch – I’ve used them for a year now without a single hitch.
A retail price breakdown of their Sempron/Debian dedicated solution.
Have you looked at getting space at the other TextDrive data centre?
What’s the status on this Matt? Will you be posting a follow-up entry to conclude what you came to for this?
Sure, we’re still getting quotes and such.
Matt,
I would recommend you speak with Brian Gemberling from Pulltheplug technologies. He currently has an extremely large network that is 100% owned not leased. He might be able to really create something to suit what you’re looking for. He’s flexible and an all around great guy to work with.
let me know if you have any questions via email.
Regards,
Justin
Hi Matt,
Are you guys still in the process of figuring this out? If not, what did you end up going with? Also, just curious, why is it important to use Debian 64?
We actually decided to go with several, the first two are Aplus and Grokthis.