The Author – Bart Busschots
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Jun
26
My Visit To Hosting365
Filed Under Computers & Tech on June 26, 2007 at 10:16 pm
As some of you may remember I was getting rather frustrated with Hosting365 a while ago. However, Hosting365 responded very positively to the frustrations I expressed and, at their invitation, I paid them a visit today. Firstly, it was nice to put faces to the names. The guys all seem dead sound and the big-wigs are all Mac users so they must be alright 😉
Anyhow, I didn’t trek over to Park West at rush hour just to attach faces to names and engage in some Mac nostalgia. I went down there to see for myself what kind of infra-structure I’m entrusting with the task of hosting my sites and my customer’s sites, and to see how Hosting365 are going to resolve their problems with domain registrations. Bottom-line, I’m happy with what I saw.
[tags]Hosting365, Hosting, Domain Registration[/tags]
My visit started with a tour of the data center so I’ll start there. They have good kit which is well set up and seems to be very well run. The place was immaculate, it was basically like every server room should be but like far too few actually are. They advertise it as a world class data center and having seen it I’d have to agree.
Secondly, I got to see a demo of the new control panel they will be releasing soon. I had though this new panel would just be for managing domain registrations, and I would have been delighted with that, but it’s much much more. It will become a single control panel from which all your Hosting365 products can be managed. And I do mean all, domains, email, shared hosting, dedicated hosting, the lot. When it’s first rolled out it will be just for domains but the rest will be added one by one over the next while. The demo impressed me. I can see how the new system would cut down support tickets a lot. I’ve been told to expect the new system in a matter of weeks, so hopefully we’ll all get our hands on it soon!
Finally, I was very happy to hear that cheap dedicated servers will be making a return to Hosting365 in the near future. I was always a big fan of the cheap, no-frills, dedicated servers they used to sell under the Rack365 brand (this site is actually hosted on one of those servers). Hence, I was very sorry to see this product line come to an end. However, thanks to the magic of VMWare and blade computing we should soon see the return of sub-one-hundred-Euro (per month) dedicated hosting at Hosting365. I can’t wait!
Did you get any photos?
What’s the power setup like? DataElectronics have dual power from seperate substations. They also perform monthly run-up-for-real tests of th e backup generators.
Eircom in Crown alley have a similar dual power arrangement.
what was there air flow like.
I didn’t get any photos and their airflow seemed fine. I walked all around the data center, in between the cabs etc, and I didn’t meet a single hot-spot or anything like that.
Murf – I’m starting to wish I’d taken notes as I went. I don’t think they have two feeds but I’m not sure of that. I know they do have their own dedicated sub-station which was put in after the fire in the shared substation that knocked them out about a year ago. Perhaps if any of the Hosting365 guys are watching these comments they could answer that question better.
Hi Murf,
DEG actually don’t have dual substations, they have redundant UPS’s feeding dual power. They are fed from a single 5MW ESB Substation. We have a single 2MW substation, which we built last year, and have a similar internal redundant arrangement on the data centre floor. I’m not aware of any DC that actually has more than one substation.
Stehpen – Aha, sorry, my bad. Misinterpreted dual feeds as dual substations. Indeed, you’re right, they have dual UPS and dual generators, with a single substation.
They must have sorted out the heat flow since the last time I was out there, it was was like a sauna.
I’m pretty sure they don’t have their own sub-station yet, although they are planning one(unless it has been built in the last 2 months?). They do have a backup generator tho’
Definitely not a sauna! As for the substation, I was pointed to a new looking little side building and told “this is our new substation”. I didn’t obviously go in and check there was current flowing through it, I kinda took their word that it really was a substation.
Fair enough, I must have been mistaken. I thought they were having planning problems with it and then something to do with the ESB connecting it up. I’m sure Steve will clear it up.
It was quite warm the last time I was out but I guess it could have been an ‘off day’.
Hi Mioc,
Substation’s been online and powering the building since March/April, did take a while to sort out alright 🙂 🙂
As for the temp, we keep it in the 22-24 degree celcius range at all times.
We used Hosting365 for colocation, and while their facilities may be good based on what you say, their customer service is extremely poor. I will spare all the details but suffice to say they are extremely slow to respond to email even though they say that’s what they prefer.
Hi Kam,
Sorry to hear that – can you email me directly with ticket numbers or more details and I will sort it out for you? We have a 24/7 support team, and we measure both speed of response and tickets left open, so I will ensure I get to the bottom of any delays you might have experienced,
Stephen
I always manage to get stuck in the double doors there. I press the buzzer for the escape. The metallic voice asks me: ‘Who is it?’, And I always say ‘Delivery!’, thinking of a pizza delivery guy. I guess having a box with jet another Dell blade is a giveaway…