 |
- New State of the Art Tier One Data Center
- Redundant Connections
- Multiple Levels of Security
- Multiple Back-Up Generators
The type and model of Dell PowerEdge servers that we use depend on it's function. For example our SQL database servers need more power than web servers so we use Dell PowerEdge 6650 servers with a minimum of 4Gb of SDRAM and dual XEON processors.
For web servers we use the Dell PowerEdge 1750. These high performance rack dense servers have proven to be highly reliable. All web servers have a minimum 1.4Ghz processors with 2Gb of SDRAM or higher. The 1750 has proven to be an excellent web server and due to the high density we are able to use more servers per rack than traditional 2U or 4U rack mounted servers.
Email, SSL and other critical servers use the robust and powerful Dell PowerEdge 2650 servers. We also deploy Dell PowerEdge 1650 and Dell PowerEdge 1550 for various other systems and servers.
Feature for feature, our datacenter beats the competition. Our highly secure data center facilities provide uninterruptible and back-up power, raised flooring, redundant Internet connections with 24-hour monitoring, and state-of-the-art fire suppression and environmental controls for your ultimate peace of mind.
- Redundant uninterruptible power supplies
- Multiple redundant back-up generators
- Raised floors with rack ventilation
- Separate cooling zones
- Humidity control per individual zone
- Multiple levels of security
- Early Warning Fire Detection System
- FM-200 gas-based fire suppression system
- Double pre-action dry pipe sprinkler system
- Continuous, uninterruptible power supply
- Multiple standby generators
- monitoring by Layerblue staff
Our Network Operations is managed out of Denver, Colorado in a new State of the Art Tier1 Network Operations Center (NOC).
- Superior Network Reliability
- Accelerated Time to Market
- Scalability
- 24 x 7 monitoring
- 24 x 7 on-call staff
- Raised floors
- HVAC with separate cooling zones
- Multiple levels of security
- 24x7 card key access
- Biometric hand scan entry system
- Video surveillance
- Multiple levels of Fire suppression:
- Early Warning System
- FM-200 gas-based fire suppression system
- Double pre-action dry pipe sprinkler system
- Multiple redundant Power back-up
- Continuous, uninterruptible power supply
- Multiple standby generators
- Environmental Monitoring Systems
- Maintained consistant temperature and humidity
- 2 OC-12's with Qwest and MCI connecting to Verio Chicago and Verio Palo Alto
- 2 OC-3s with Qwest and MCI connecting to the same points
- OC-192 Fiber to the data center
- 2 Juniper M20 Backbone Routers
- 2 Foundry BigIron4000 Giga Ethernet Switches
- 4 Cisco 6500 Aggregation Switch/Routers, These routers have multiple connections to our backbone routers.
- The backbone is a Tier 1 backbone.
The data center has connections to many different Internet backbones including UUNet, Sprint, Cable and Wireless, CRL, Qwest, Exodus, Agis and Net Axs. We also have private and direct peering DS3's set up between our location and that of American Online and PSI-Net. The data center also operates its own DS3 to Mae East to peer with many of the smaller Tier One providers as well as operating another DS3 to the ATM switch located there.
By connecting to multiple backbones, the data can be distributed through many sources. This architectural design also means that the network connections are not dependent upon any single Internet backbone. Thus, when problems occur traffic rerouting is automatic, thereby ensuring the integrity of the network and continued access for our high-speed dedicated server clients. This takes the term "multi-homing" to a whole new level.
Presently bandwidth utilization is 25% during peak traffic times. Therefore, the network is very flexible. If one of the backbone connections experiences problems, the traffic can simply be rerouted over other paths, thereby ensuring that users receive fast access times to sites hosted on our network.
In addition, the network runs Border Gate Protocol (BGP4). BGP is used for a provider with more than one access point to the Internet. It helps create a truly redundant network. In fact, in an ideal situation, a leased-line failure should result in the BGP routing session to close on a bad leased-line causing the router on a working circuit to begin accepting the additional traffic.
In other words, traffic from a downed circuit is redistributed across other circuits, thereby maintaining network integrity. Providers that are multi-homed and correctly setup can actually be more reliable than a single backbone provider because they have multiple paths to multiple providers.
A provider's local area network is not often enough, sometime being seen as a point of latency. The two main sources of latency for a full-time Internet connection are the user's local area network and the Internet provider's local area network. The local network is anchored by Cisco 5500 Catalyst Series Ethernet switches and high-end Cisco routers (like a Cisco 7513). This top-of-the-line network hardware ensures that data requests get to their destination and back out of the network as fast as possible. We use Ethernet switches instead of hubs because of their speed and their security capabilities. Whereas only one computer plugged into a hub can talk at one time, all the machines connected to a switch can talk at the same time. This means more data can travel through a switch and each server acts as its own node on the network. Furthermore, since each server is its own node on the network, it is difficult for hackers to trace data packets with sensitive information (i.e. passwords) to a particular server.
Servers on the network do not share a single path (T3). Instead, the servers are connected into a high-speed Ethernet switch. This switch is connected to the core router at the data center. From the core router, data is sent back to the end user across the fastest available path. Whereas, statically routing traffic over one path creates a single point of failure, this distributed architecture ensures that users can access data extremely quick and have multiple paths both into and out of our network.
|
|
|
