Colocation?

[KevinP]

So, I currently lease a few dedicated servers with various different companies in different locations but I want to come to a solution where everything is in the one place where I can always have hands-on access if I want to. I am currently looking at Zare.co.uk for colocation in the UK, I have used them in the past for leasing Dedicated and Virtual services and have always had good dealings with them. It's also nice to be able to contact Jordan/Harry from Zare on Skype to have issues resolved quickly and efficiently. I don't want to just go with a place because I've used it before though, I want to know what's good and what's not, so, I ask if you have any expertise in this area or any experience with any providers in the UK or Europe (be in colocation or just leasing). 

I am looking at some racks to buy, they're 1U in size. Does anyone have any past experiences in colocation, if so, is it worth it? It is a huge investment to make but it could save in the long run, and having owned hardware it can always be shipped from place to place.

So, what I want to begin with:

~3U Rack Space (3x1U).
1Gbps port.
Free/Low cost KVM loans.

I thank you for your help in advance,
RubberDucky / Kevin.

 

[Wilco]

Jordon @ Zare in Bristol ... look no where else

 

[Zeito]

@RubberDucky You could look into Blackknight Colocation in Carlow, Ireland, we used to use them as our Disaster Recovery site and hosted an FTP colo out of there for corporation tax reasons. Always worked well for us!

https://www.blacknight.com/colocation-ireland.html

You would also benefit from connection to Hibernia Fibre that runs between LINX in london and then off the the USA for good latency etc.

 

[KevinP]

@RubberDucky You could look into Blackknight Colocation in Carlow, Ireland, we used to use them as our Disaster Recovery site and hosted an FTP colo out of there for corporation tax reasons. Always worked well for us!

https://www.blacknight.com/colocation-ireland.html

You would also benefit from connection to Hibernia Fibre that runs between LINX in london and then off the the USA for good latency etc.

Have seen them before, never really considered using any locations in Ireland. What's their support like? Would their network be efficient for global traffic?

Jordon @ Zare in Bristol ... look no where else

Do ye colocate, or just lease your custom hardware?

 

[Zeito]

Have seen them before, never really considered using any locations in Ireland. What's their support like? Would their network be efficient for global traffic?

We never had any cause to contact their support team, so that's a good thing! Yeah their network would be superb.

Being such a small island here we benefit from european grants for better infrastructure (at least up north). Any colo worth their salt will have multiple redundant connections to various internet exchanges and carrier backbones. Black Knight seem to Peer with LINX in London which is based at Redbus Interhouse i think and is a major internet exchange, the's AMSIX as well in amsterdam, plus as i mentioned perviously, Ireland has a massive fuck-off fibre connection called Hibernia Fibre that provides us with ultra high bandwidth connections to the US.

That's why we have Services Operation Centers for New York Stock Exchange/Euronext and Chicago Merchantile Exchange in Belfast, as every single millisecond counts in the stock exchange!

Plus it's somewhat more convenient if you need hands-on access to go to Carlow! BT also provide Colo services in Belfast which we used as another DR site. My boss must have had bad visions about something terrible happening to our offices...

 

[KevinP]

We never had any cause to contact their support team, so that's a good thing! Yeah their network would be superb.

Being such a small island here we benefit from european grants for better infrastructure (at least up north). Any colo worth their salt will have multiple redundant connections to various internet exchanges and carrier backbones. Black Knight seem to Peer with LINX in London which is based at Redbus Interhouse i think and is a major internet exchange, the's AMSIX as well in amsterdam, plus as i mentioned perviously, Ireland has a massive fuck-off fibre connection called Hibernia Fibre that provides us with ultra high bandwidth connections to the US.

That's why we have Services Operation Centers for New York Stock Exchange/Euronext and Chicago Merchantile Exchange in Belfast, as every single millisecond counts in the stock exchange!

Plus it's somewhat more convenient if you need hands-on access to go to Carlow! BT also provide Colo services in Belfast which we used as another DR site. My boss must have had bad visions about something terrible happening to our offices...

Hmm.. Will get in touch and see about a quote.

I know Zare is £35/U.