Corporate Colo
Sep 19, 2007
Here is a short list of grievances
1) Un-ethical pricing schemes
2) Ignoring your support calls once you cancel
3) Cancelling after confirming to show up for a hardware pickup
4) Billing you for months on end after you cancel
5) Not unracking the servers and making clients wait over 2 hours to help THEIR techs unrack boxes
6) Releasing servers to my customers directly for a fee without my authorization (I was holding onto customer's hardware as they owed me money for past due invoices- these servers became released to the client without my knowledgs who then went direct with corporate colo -- see complaint 7 below)
7) Stealing our customers by offering a lower fee to them to get them to "go direct" by saying - sure you can keep your ips, we'll just take it away from your host and let you keep them
8) Giving us the wrong box (YEP They gave us ANOTHER client's box AND called us up begging for us to return it 2 hours later ... all on my dime)
All of this is documented so if they want to come on here and argue, I'd be MORE THAN HAPPY to blast them further.
STAY AWAY FROM CORPORATE COLO - one of the most unprofessional, vindictive, childish and corrupt colocation companies out there
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Oct 7, 2009
I'm assuming a corporate proxy cache is what they have set up. I have a client and every time I send them changes to a temporary page I'm hosting for review they can't see it.
They can hit refresh over and over but never see the new updates unless I change the name of the folder its in.
This is very annoying and it only happens with them and one other corporate client i have. They check on multiple computers and it will never refresh and load the new changes. I think this is their network cache that their IT dept. set up.
How can I get around this? I tried an htaccess trick I looked up for expiring files but it didnt work.
These files are on a shared hosting of mine on an Apache server.
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Nov 6, 2009
I've been asked to put a list together of UK suppliers of dedicated servers for LAMP and Windows webhosting.
The organisation's IT department wants to stop hosting different department websites.
I have companies like Rackspace, Positive Internet and Peer1 on the list.
They'd need to be companies that would pass a due diligence, secuirty and quality audit etc.
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Mar 12, 2009
i am about to take on a big account where i will be hosting-developing-designing and doing analysis. im not sure if i should get my own server or transfer this new account to my hosting company (host monster).
im afraid if my server goes down i will not have the experience to rectify it in a rapid speed. is it ok to keep a big account that relies on web traffic and business with a host like host monster and what are the pro"s and con's. i have only done web design and development thus far and the hosting and maintenance is pretty new to me.
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Jun 29, 2008
just to give a kickback to these guys from Corp. Collo in LA. Let me first explain why we needed their service, and then what happened.
GPLHost, the company that I started in 2003, does VPS hosting from many location. We sell our service with our GPLed solution, using services from other company that we trust for taking care of hardware. As we had already a very good partnership in Florida, we started to investigate who we could host with in the other side of USA. We don't ask much, but at least, that a company knows how to open a chassis, change a hard drive or a memory, nothing more. It has been running this way for years without a glitch until...
Everything started well with them, we were charged 55 USD per month, which was one of the cheapest service we ever found, together with a very good bandwidth.
Until we had the most common issue we have: a hardware failure on our RAID1 software array. So we did mdadm -f /dev/sdb, mdadm --remove, then power off the HDD with hdparm, then ordered for a new hard drive to our usual supplier. When the drive arrived, we asked for a change, and also that the IPMI ip of the board was set, using a special CD from the constructor of the motherboard.
For your total understanding, please see this link, showing the server's chassis:
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At the time, we were using short 1U box, in order to minimize costs. Now we only use longer ones, with bigger PSU and 4 HDD hot-swappable bays like the SCT813. So if you want to remove any of the 2 embedded HDD, you need to remove the top panel and unscrew the shroud pumping air that is in the middle (one unique screw on the bottom).
It took 1:15 for the 2 operations that needed no more than 15 minutes in total. So we were charged 300 USD (150 USD per hour), which is already abnormal. It took them 30 minutes for the HDD itself because they removed the FRONT panel, which is not needed at all.
Then the server failed unexpectedly the 2nd day. I wont explain in details all the stupid things they did for us, but after 6 hours, they finally noticed that there was a red light next to a thermometer icon on the front panel that was flashing! YES, 6 hours to find this...
So, after discussions, we agreed that they would rent us the defective hardware: the same motherboard, RAM + CPU, at a very expensive rate (something like 100 USD per week, os something like this...). So we asked for the defective system to be sent to our hardware supplier for a check. Of course, it took 2 weeks back and forth. And the result is... that the air shroud cooling the CPU was facing the HARD DRIVE and not the RAM and the CPU cooler. For an unknown reason, the technician decided to make a 90° rotation of it, before closing the box, which of course nearly destroyed it.
Because we had quite some customers on this server (as it was serving VPS customers), we still paid to resume the operation. But all together, a simple HDD failure costed us at least:
- 300 USD for the first change of HDD
- 600 USD for the 2nd day trying to diagnose what happened after they destroyed the server. They "nicely" said they would charge 3 hours instead of 6...
- 2 or 3x 100 USD for renting the server
- Maybe 80 USD Shipping of our server back and forth to the hardware supplier
- The new 1U casing for the server (at least 200 USD)
At this time, they still do not agree that they broke something. Nobody, including my supplier and myself, understand how an air blower can make a 90° rotation BY ITSELF without the intervention of god.
We had, about 6 months or more later, another HDD that failed. So we asked them to change it. All together, it took more than 2 months, and there was some other issues that I since forgot.
But that's not it! Read further...
Finally, we have migrated all our customers to another collocation facility that are much more unprofessionals. Then we asked for the server to be shipped, together with a linksys switch that we provided at the same time. Victor took an incredible 2 or 3 weeks to just FIND the switch (he first told me that it might have been lost). Then, he told me he found it, but IT WAS BROKEN! Yes, again, they broke something, and this time, they agreed saying they broke it. And guess what? Victor told me he was ready to charge back on my credit card the CHEAPEST amount that I ever saw for that switch online, excluding shipping or any taxes... Incredible.
But ... THAT'S NOT FINISHED!
I once went to bank to withdraw on the company's credit card and it was over limit. So I ran to home, called the bank, and they told me that corporate collocation has CONTINUED to withdraw on my credit card. So I called the "so called" hotline (which is NOT 24x7, I can tell by experience), and started to shout on the phone that I do not appreciate the "joke". Of course, Victor said he was sorry, and that he would charge back the money for the switch, plus what has been charged wrongly this June.
All together, my company have lost more than 2000 USD with corporate collocation if I include everything. As of today, I have yet received no email from Corp. Collo saying that the money they (agree that) they own me is sent back to my credit card. Maybe if they did, I wouldn't have post here, and accept the apologizes. But that is really too much this time!
In short:
- Corporate collocation charges when they should not, they are thefts
- Corporate collocation doesn't admit they break hardware, they are liars
The only good thing is that we made it so our customers didn't feel too much about all the worries we had, and down time was quite minimized, luckily. It could have been a lot worth with extended down time.
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Jun 3, 2007
I'm writing a review on Corporate Colocation (Corp Colo, Corporate Colo, etc). We were with them for 9 months and just recently we decided to move our equipment to Zogmo.
Background:
We signed up with Corporate Colocation in September of 2006. At that time, we wanted to find a cheaper colocation offer so we could "get out feet wet" with colocation. For a while, we only had one machine but later on we added a second one. I will go into my reasons for moving at the end.
Sales:
In my opinion, this is the only part of Corporate Colocation that I found good. Jon and Victor have been pretty good customer service wise. They seem to always be willing to do things that need to be done and they are pretty good about working with you. Although they didn't seem to be very technically inclined, they did a pretty good job overall with the sales aspect. There were only a few times we had billing issues and they have been pretty quick to fix them with some follow-up.
I would give them an 8.5/10 for sales.
Technical Support:
Minimal at best. Things seem to take days to get done with technical support and even some of the emails that I sent in with regards to some network issues (not with Corporate Colocation, but farther down) were never even responded to.
For example, I requested them to activate a remote reboot port that I had paid for and a week went by with no word. I ended up calling in and talking with Dima about it and he seemed to know about it the request and he had it setup within a few hours. When it was setup, he didn't even bother to follow my instructions and even proceeded to spell my company name incorrectly. A few weeks later I went to use the remote reboot port and it didn't work. Evidently they fixed it, but I ended up leaving a few weeks later so I didn't bother seeing if it worked.
We had some issues with their network. It's partly my fault for requesting a rate-limit on my port, but it took a few days a few emails to even get a response. He seemed to respond pretty quickly as long as there was no work involved. I can't really hold this one against them because it was my own dumb fault, but it's something that didn't sit well with me.
Overall, I wasn’t very satisfied with their technical support. However, I tend to have a little high standards. If you don’t mind having to follow-up and emails with calls (or more emails) and don’t mind a few days for support to get back to you then Corporate Colocation is for you. I just like being in the loop and communicated to, which is one thing they severely lack.
I rate them a 5/10 for their technical support.
Network:
I will stay that they had a pretty reliable network and speeds were pretty good. All I can recall is two outages (unscheduled) where the network was either down or very slow. One was where their network room lost power, so I assume all their network equipment went down. I did file an SLA claim on that one, which they did promptly pay. The other was just a few minutes (<15 minutes) where the network was spotty. I can say they have been doing some network over that past few months and they are defiantly improving in that area.
I rate them a 9/10 for network.
Datacenter:
I drove to Los Angeles to pick up my equipment from Corporate Colo (see canceling for the experience). I was escorted from the lobby area up to FastServ, where Corporate Colocation is located, and I was given access to the datacenter. The datacenter area was reasonably cooled and they had a few big fans blowing air around. The racks themselves looked a little cluttered. The server a couple U’s above mine evidently fell a U or so on to mine (It was on rails, but somehow got dislodged). The server below mine was not even screwed into the rack and when I attempted to pull my servers out it would pull the ones above and below mine. Good thing I brought a couple people to help me with removing the servers and it four of us to make sure the servers on the top and the bottom didn’t move and to make sure their server’s cords didn’t come out. I just hope that others would exercise the same caution when doing stuff with their server(s).
Overall, I wasn’t really impressed with the datacenter. There was nothing bad per se, but the servers on the racks looked a little cluttered and unorganized. I would rate them a 7.5/10
Canceling:
I wasn’t particularly happy with the way they handled the cancelation. I made sure to have a few people confirm my cancelation (over the phone and email) and I had to do some following up a few times in order to even get some answers (I wanted to have my cancelation confirmed and I wanted to confirm access, etc). After some time, I finally got answers to my questions over the phone.
When I was at the datacenter, I was told by someone from FastServ that I had an outstanding balance and I would need to contact Corporate Colocation to get it resolved.
When I called them, they were trying to charge me for another month of service. But I made sure to keep sufficient proof that I canceled well before the 30 days notice and that both Victor and Jon confirmed it. They did finally give me access to my servers, but after about 20 or so minutes a lady came out with the guy that escorted me to my servers asking my it was taking so long and she eluded to the fact that that I needed to just grab my servers and leave (She did tell me that I need to get my servers and seemed very insistent about why I was there). She then proceeded to wait next to us to finish.
I’m not sure why the lady was so rude to me as I did have a right to be there; my colocation didn’t terminate for another few weeks and I wasn’t wondering around the datacenter touching stuff that I shouldn’t have (In fact, I tried everything I could to make sure the servers around mine were left unharmed. I know it wasn’t just me, because even the security guard that checked us in commented on how rude she was.
I would rate the cancellation a 5/10.
Overall
I can say that sales was pretty good to me. They did lack in some areas, but overall that’s what kept me there for so long. I was planning on using them in the future for some non-critical (off-site, etc) stuff in the future, but the way that I was treated at the datacenter and the trouble I had canceling has made me to think otherwise. This is one of those “you get what you pay for” situations. If you need something cheap that is fairly good, then Corporate Colocation is for you.
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Nov 2, 2007
i work for a small but fairly successful and quickly rising company. we're looking for hosting for our corporate site. we could host it ourselves but that would put an extra burden on engineering and we're stretched pretty thin as it is. we moved to bluehost on my recommendation. i've been using them for 2 years now and never had a problem. unfortunately less than two days after we switched the server is now down. it's been down for over 4 hours now and we've blown past several estimated times from tech support. i know this is a rare thing but it doesn't look good and i don't think the higher ups much want to stay with them. so here's some info about our site. requires SSI, CGI, Perl 5.8+ with Perl DBI 1.32+ and Perl DBD::Mysql > 2.1021+ Perl Modules, ImageMagick 6.0.6+ Perl Module or GD Perl Module (GD.pm 2.17+), PHP 5. small traffic with occasional spikes. approx 200 uniques daily. occasional spikes if we happen to show up in the news. we do have the possibility of showing up in all major US news outlets. it's happened once before which resulted in almost 1,000 uniques which quickly tapered back off to normal levels. we're currently using 154MB of disk space and 8GB of bandwidth last month. we need multiple ftp accounts to allow marketing and contract web devs to upload their own files. probably around 10 or so would be adequate. email not required. we have a hosted exchange server. uptime and quick response to server outages important. being a corporate site and not our application downtime isn't truly horrible but it is perceived as such. this site is our identity. we're a tech company and it looks bad when our corporate site is down. even when our application isn't.
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Dec 16, 2007
Please give me the difference. Colo in carrier hotel, we can choose our preferred network provider, but should we do that if we cannot have our own tech in datacenter? How about the supporting service from carrier hotel? Just general question, cause I dont address exactly which facility.
And the second would be more expensive? Saying the same number of rack, amount of bandwidth... Who is providing IP addresses then?
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Mar 29, 2008
I've been out of the game for a while and now looking at colo prices each server is only allocated 0.5a on most plans.
I was looking at purchasing a 1u HP DL160 dual quad core system with at least dual sata raided drives
My question is what kind of amps would a system like this pull? and how much do data centers typically charge for that additional power if it needed over the .5
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Mar 11, 2008
if anyone knew hosts (other then FDC in USA) that offers 1U-4U/midtower colocation with 100Mbit or greater uplink, with atleast 2TB of transfer. With IRC allowed.
My budget is ~$100, I'm fairly sure it can be done as I saw FDC had one for $79, and it would be fine though I was hoping if anyone knew any others.
Also, Giga-International has what I need, are they reliable?
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Dec 10, 2007
Anyone here have much experience in a facility with 48VDC (like a telco facility). Is it more trouble than it's worth?
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Jul 20, 2008
colo of a 1u server that would need 500gig per month of b/w and I perferably would like to find a DC in NY/northern NJ or southern CT although in my search I seem to be getting price quotes of $100+ per month which I think is insane when I see dedicateds with more b/w for the same amount or even less.
I know most will say just get a dedicated server somewhere but my requirments are that I need a server with a lot of ram and at least a dual cpu and dedicate's with a dual cpu and 2gigs or more of ram seem to be much more thenmy budget.
So any suggestions for a $60 or less per month colo space with 500gig of b/w or a dedicated server provider offering a server in that price range with dual cpu and 2gig ddr ram and 80gig hdd?
By the way I looked at ezzi.net which has a $49 deal on a dedicated server but no option to have one with a dual cpu:
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Jan 3, 2007
I have had experience with reselling hosting using HostGator seller. My job was basically to run my site and get customers, set up price plans etc on WHM. I sold that company a while back. I am ready to have another shot at hosting, but this time I want to use my own servers...
I have found a great site, which has customisations etc. on servers (http://www.cybertronpc.com), but they don't ship to UK. (If I'm using colo is US, could I get it shipped straight to them?)
My main question is, is colo needed? If I am going to setup this company the Data-Center is not going to be local, either London or in US. So there is no chance of me going down unless it is to pick up my server . So I think I'm going to need a maintaned service I think. The server will be used for clients data (shared hosting). So what services will I need in terms of security and stability? What am I looking for in a colo service? What about back-ups of data on the server? Is that my responsibility or can it be bought as a service? Ok... now I'm guessing that I'm going to need colo...
What are common problems etc. with servers? Am I going to need virtual IP connection for maintainance... Is it best I pay for this or a service operator? Any recommendations on where to have the colo (i'm based in UK) and why? What can I do when it is time for me to request my server back from UK?
When changing colo services is there any way of avoiding down-time?
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Jul 16, 2007
I have noticed that many web hosts offer intel celeron machines @ $55 per month...they do not own the datacenters but colocate the servers,
We are also thinking of buying 2-3 such machines @ $450 each and then coloing them in the USA
I think about 800gigs-1tb would be the bandwidth requirements per server..
we aren't interested in RACKS...we just want to colo 2-3 machines to see how fast they sell, and then maybe we might order about 10-15 servers..
who do you think can offer us a decent deal for less than $40-50 per month...all
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Oct 31, 2007
currently I have managed several dedicated servers. I plan to colo it with 1 rack at a datacentre. So, before I buy hardware or software, I need some helpful info/guide.
- I need my server can be monitored, reboot remotely. What kind of hardware is require and please suggest some models.
- Which software is suitable for billing, monitoring. Please suggest any software come with good API since I plan to develop own small control panel later.
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Jan 28, 2007
anyone knows any good colocations in orlando, FL? I need 2 mb and 300 gb for 49.99 per month.
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Mar 13, 2007
What is the best indication for a web hosting company to move from dedicated server to colocation?
I have several low end dedis and im thinking of buying an enterprise class server with lots of diskspace (raid 5, dual power, ecc, etc.), have it colocated and move all the accounts to that server. I would be saving in the long run but kinda turned-off due to all eggs in one (enterprise-class) basket dilema. I woud be saving on server management cost too because I'm signing up one machine only instead of several.
Is going colocation a natural progression of the web hosting business cycle? We start off with a Reseller Account in the beginning - then grow and lease a Dedicated Server. And then grow and lease another and another..... Is colocation the next big step?
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Jul 25, 2007
I'm considering going with CalPop for one of my colo sites. I've read the user reviews and apart from those who were chaffed because of scratched servers and reboots they seem decent enough. My take on sticking anything in a datacenter is to stick it in yourself and rent the entire rack. That should take care of 90% of the negative reviews I have read, so my question is does any one have any real review of their services? Bandwidth performance, etc?
Secondly, I need a second colo for a redundant server. I'd like to find something closer on the East coast that offers the same pricing structure and services.
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May 1, 2007
Anyone know what firewall do I need for my colo? I want to protect external IP. Here is my setup
3 servers, all have two nic cards, one of the cards will be the external IP and the other one will be LAN IP. So my question is what hardware firewall do I need to protect the External IP?
I was thinking of a cisco pix 515e. Which only route external IP to the LAN IP. I need something where I don't have to route, It just protect the external IP.
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Oct 18, 2009
I need 1U of space, .5 amp (50 watts) power, one IP, 2.5mbps bidirectional bandwidth (total of 5mbps up + down) and about 10GB of traffic per day each direction (total of 20GB up + down). Would be nice if they have remote KVM along with console (serial) access. Location should be anywhere in USA.
Purpose is to host a VPN router for various remote locations to connect in to. Reliability and good connection (low latency) is important.
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May 2, 2008
I've been a colo since the beginning of time. My servers are getting old so I've started pricing options, and it looks like dedicated is the way to go today. But I'm not sure...
I suppose it depends on the host. My host says "if you're colo, we provide admin at an hourly rate. If your machine needs a reboot, call us and we reboot it. If you're dedicated we don't touch your server beyond repairing it. If it needs a reboot, you login to our site and click a link and it is rebooted."
That doesn't seem like much of a difference. I'd need an off-site admin, but both charge by the hour, so no big deal. A live person reboot seems no better than a web-based software reboot. In fact I'll wager that the "live person" just logs in and clicks the link for me.
Colo is about twice as expensive as dedicated. That seems like the only big difference.
It also seems to me that with today's cPanel-style admin it's trivial to migrate to a new host, so competition to keep clients is intense. I'm guessing that keeps prices down. Reading between the lines of what my host says, I can tell he doesn't really want me to go dedicated. He kinda said they don't make much money on dedicated machines.
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Feb 24, 2008
Anyone have any opinions on Node2 colocation up in near Derby?
Seem to offer a good price point, but whats the service like?
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May 29, 2008
I have a web hosting business that has been growing constantly for a couple of years, now I think it's time to move on and instead of leasing servers start with colocation and operating my own hardware, I'm in Mexico and there are no good deals here as there are in other countries, so I have several questions about your appreciation of where things are better for business, US or Canada:
Where is colo cheaper?
Where is hardware cheaper?
Where is personnel less costly?
Where is personnel better qualified?
Where is office space cheaper?
Where is electrical energy cheaper?
Where are more investment opportunities?
Where are taxes lower?
Where is living less costly?
I've been researching these on my own but still have several doubts, may be you find some of this question obvious however I'd still like to know your appreciation.
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Jun 8, 2008
Which are the best colo provider in Texas. I checked cologuys, colo4dallas and zogmo.
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Jan 31, 2008
Are there any established providers that offer this? I want an established company who isn't going to run off with my server, and they need to provide high quality bandwidth(Level3, AT&T, Sprint, etc) with 100% Power SLA, etc. in a secure facility.
IE: If I buy my own servers can I ship them out to a datacenter to have them fully managed, basically being a dedicated server? Except i'll own the hardware, and they provide the bandwidth, management, etc.
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Dec 31, 2008
Can anyone recommend a descent colo in the Phoenix/Tempe area?
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May 15, 2008
how to organize a colo startup if I manage to get a cage with 2-3 cabinets in a Peer1 datacentre.
From my knowledge, Peer1 handles firewalling, BGP, etc on their end so I probably won't need it.
But how can I organize it, what do you guys do when you get a new client?
Have cables readily dangling in the racks or something so you can connect it to the clients right away?
What kind of reboot privs do you give out?
Monitoring traffic, etc?
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Mar 6, 2008
I have an extra tower server (Dell sc1430) that I'd like to colocate in Seattle. Anyone have a suggestion of a company that would colocate a tower in Seattle?
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Aug 18, 2008
I've been dealing with VPS and dedicated servers primarily.
Is there any benefit of switching to colocation? When should one consider switching to colocation? And should he at all?
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Apr 25, 2008
I've always had to use a bandwidth mix. I recently got offered a great deal on a full rack/cabinet with 30 Mbps of Level3 and Qwest bandwidth in the Chicago area and am thinking about moving my dedicated servers to colo.
I would appreciate your opinions and assistance with these questions.
What is considered a good deal for a full rack, power, and 30 Mbps of Level 3/Qwest bandwidth in the Chicago area? Assuming that it's in a nice and secure datacenter.
Is Level 3 still considered a top bandwidth provider these days?
How good is it compared (in terms of network quality, latency, etc.) to providers like Abovenet, Mzima, and Internap?
Lastly, how does Qwest bandwidth rate among the other carriers?
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Feb 1, 2008
The company i work for is growing at a rapid pace. We need to decide on if we want to colo or add better,bigger connection to our office.
We currently have DSL from Att 6/1 in downtown chicago.
Our product is a web app which people login and use. It runs in IIS, the user can see there data in various forms when the web server makes MS SQL query on the MS SQL that is also on the web server box which is 2u. The user can also download pdf report which range in size from 2meg to 30megs. Due to a limits of our dsl connection the more user's that use it the slower the end user's experience is due to the inet bottleneck. So our option is to get a T1 from ATT,covad or other provider or colo our server.
what factors should i take into account when looking at colo's in the chicago area. I am not sure how much b.w. this apps uses or any other factors the server would be a Dell 2950.
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