Managed hosting firms are fit for purpose

Many datacentres do have the latest technology, says Mike Bainbridge

Vendor Brocade has claimed, as reported by ChannelWeb, that datacentres are not fit to meet companies' demands for virtualisation and cloud. But in my daily experience I've not seen datacentres relying on tired technology or unable to cope with customer demands.

In fact, many networks – including ours – run the most up-to-date hardware available. The very essence of managed hosting is providing a great service and guaranteeing enterprise-class levels of uptime, that is to say 99.999 per cent.

To ensure this, the infrastructure has to be rock solid. We do a technology refresh every two years to guarantee that datacentres have the latest hardware and networking equipment.

Customers demand the best platform possible so they can run the newest software. Datacentre operators aim to make it as easy as possible for them to adopt new hardware technology with flexible contracts and rack space buying options, such as a flat rate per kilowatt.

Power is also a key commodity in effective hosting, so phasing out older, less-efficient infrastructure is important.

Not all hosting companies rely solely on the local power grid to guarantee constant power either. We have our own local diesel-powered generators and uninterruptable power systems.

Our datacentres are locked and guarded, monitored by CCTV and onsite security teams, and entry is only possible with a military-grade pass card and biometric finger scanning. This restricts entry to authorised personnel and colocation customers.

Mike Bainbridge is solutions engineer at Peer 1 Hosting