Switch AMS1 data center - we did what our customers lacked so much!
Providing premium quality services to thousands of subscribers, as a rule, it is impossible to achieve full customization. Someone wants a permanent IP-KVM, someone has a higher bandwidth channel, but with limited traffic, someone connects servers to each other on a local network or just be able to expand the channel at the right time. It happens that a person himself does not understand what he wants and already in the course of discussing the order comes to the understanding that nothing of the standard iron is suitable in principle. And it often happens because of poor planning or excessive budget savings that a server is needed "for yesterday", and not just a server, but a custom built solution.
To ensure all this is extremely difficult if the goal is to provide most subscribers with premium quality services for sane money. After all, the main principle that is used to reduce the cost of high-quality services is standardization (a channel of the same throughput for servers in one cabinet, the same configuration, etc.), which facilitates planning and reduces operational costs as a result, because a large degree of automation is provided.
For a long time, we wanted to make an inexpensive and high-quality custom built on our EvoSwitch main site, but we ran into some problems with the management, which did not allow us to fully realize what was planned. We even started to seriously think about building our own data center. But in the spring of this year, a good friend of mine turned to me, who had been closely organizing his own platform for a long time and offered cooperation. The site was practically put into operation and most importantly - the right business model was conceived, which was close in spirit to us.
The “Switch” data center was not chosen by chance; it is a new data center practicing innovation and having good energy efficiency, I have noticed them for a long time. Already, several server cabinets with ultra-efficient liquid cooling are working in it, which I wrote earlier in my article “Dedicated servers under water, literally !? Prospects for fish farming in servers ?! ” What can I say, the guys keep up with the times. It is nice when the financial side fades into the background, and innovation is primary.
A bit about the data center.The Switch AMS1 data center is part of the Switch Datacenter Group. The group's mission is to create and manage an ultra-energy-efficient network of data centers located in strategically important places. Switch AMS1 is no exception, because it is located in the business district of southeast Amsterdam, where one of the largest densities of international trunk networks in Europe is observed, which allows you to connect to the highest-level trunk operators on the most favorable conditions. The data center has a total area of 8.320 m2 / 89.555 ft2 and is equipped with the latest technology, adheres to the Carrier Neutral policy, when the subscriber can choose which Internet providers to use. And the choice is really huge!
Switch AMS1 has more than 460 fibers from 40 different backbone transport providers such as Level3, Verizon, Zayo, BT, Colt, KPN, Atrato, Cogent, euNetworks, Relined, as well as several Internet exchanges.
Customers are also offered the opportunity to have network connections with two separate Meet-Me-Rooms to connect their infrastructure. This means that customers are able to get a double redundancy network, thanks to physically separated routes.
Ecology.What do you think, what% of all global carbon emissions account for all existing data centers? More than 2%! This is a huge number, just think that such a huge burden on the environment is caused only by data centers! Of course, it is not as high as that of enterprises or automobiles, but it is relatively huge. This problem is well understood by Switch Datacenter Group, because their data centers comply with the latest international standards and in environmental terms, in terms of energy efficiency (PUE). While Amsterdam’s authorities are demanding that the city’s data centers adhere to a PUE energy efficiency indicator of no higher than 1.3 (with an average of 1.9 in the world market), the Switch Datacenter Group at the time of opening “Switch AMS1” in 2012 reached 1.27, and by the end of 2013, this figure was reduced to 1.08, thanks to the use of green energy suppliers and the use of unique technologies in the field of cooling and energy consumption. Which is certainly expensive, but in addition to reducing the burden on the environment, it also creates long-term economic benefits and the Switch Datacenter Group understands this.
Already now, in some segments of the data center, the aforementioned cooling in the liquid is used, which will allow in the future to reach PUE 0.9 and lower if the entire data center is transferred to this ultra-efficient revolutionary technology.
"Data Center for the order."I have always been of the opinion that it makes sense to build only very large data centers, if the task is to reduce operating costs and PUE to a minimum. This is obvious, because by default a larger data center receives more favorable conditions, both from an electricity supplier and from backbone providers, and there is more space for innovation. But what if you certainly need your own playground? It will be much more profitable to build a data center in a data center, and this solution will be no worse in terms of reliability, and even more reliable (a larger selection of backbone providers, a more extensive and well-coordinated team of specialists who will support the data center infrastructure). “Switch AMS1” offers such a service and is ready to organize mini data centers with an area of 500 m2 / 5381 ft2.
This solution was chosen, the initial infrastructure - 40 server cabinets and 100 Gb / s to the network with the possibility of a gradual increase in both the number of cabinets and the capacity of the network channels. And the most important result of this is complete freedom for our subscribers, which we wrote about above, with minimal operating costs for customers in the first place! It is time to reveal the details.
1. We understand that not everyone knows how to plan and consider everything during the time and are ready to deliver / assemble a custom built solution for you during the working day, sometimes within an hour, and if VERY urgently - even on weekends and holidays at 99.9 % of cases! However, we still ask you not to hope for a chance, it may happen that you are not lucky, we will be sorted out by servers of some configuration, or 10-gigabyte inclusions will end (a large client will come and buy the whole reserve). Try to plan everything on time. For our part, we can only guarantee that we will make every effort to help you and provide equipment as soon as possible if you were unable to plan something.
2. All servers are connected with dedicated guaranteed communication channels with a bandwidth of gigabit at least how much traffic you need is determined by you! At any time, you can add traffic, either make it non-tariffable or increase the channel to the bandwidth you need. At the moment, we provide servers with 5, 10, 25 and 100TB of total traffic per month on a dedicated 1 Gb / s channel, as well as 1, 2 and 10-Gigabit connections, excluding traffic. Please note that due to the high cost of 10-gigabit connections, we do not always have the opportunity to keep them in a “hot reserve”. Also note that when switching from a 2-gigabit inclusion to a 10-gigabit one, the ip-address is most likely to change due to a significant difference in the technology of inclusions.
3. Now, when asking “I want to connect all my servers to a local network and rent a switch”, you don’t need to rent a private cabinet, it will be enough to order all the servers you need in ONE order and switch to them, as well as pay for interconnect (the fee depends on the network topology , the number of servers connected to the local network).
4. We are also ready to provide the ability to use hardware firewall and traffic balancers, as well as individual configurations and solutions. However, such orders will already require the conclusion of a long-term contract for a period of at least 1 year, or payment for this period, of course, with a good discount.
5. In all servers we provide IPMI for free.
Well, the best part is that the lowest possible prices for services in this data center are set, we have achieved that the cost of custom-built level services is close to the cost of standard services, and in some cases even lower due to the traffic limit.
You can order servers on this site through our website http://ua-hosting.com.ua/nl-servers.html , choosing in the configurator "Netherlands, DC Switch (Amsterdam), complete freedom, delivery within 1 business day + free IPMI with all servers! ”
In conclusion, I want to demonstrate some photos from the part of the data center where your servers are located, we will start from the kernel: The
room where custom built solutions are assembled for you:
Well, the isolated module, which hosts part of the subscribers:
To ensure all this is extremely difficult if the goal is to provide most subscribers with premium quality services for sane money. After all, the main principle that is used to reduce the cost of high-quality services is standardization (a channel of the same throughput for servers in one cabinet, the same configuration, etc.), which facilitates planning and reduces operational costs as a result, because a large degree of automation is provided.
For a long time, we wanted to make an inexpensive and high-quality custom built on our EvoSwitch main site, but we ran into some problems with the management, which did not allow us to fully realize what was planned. We even started to seriously think about building our own data center. But in the spring of this year, a good friend of mine turned to me, who had been closely organizing his own platform for a long time and offered cooperation. The site was practically put into operation and most importantly - the right business model was conceived, which was close in spirit to us.
The “Switch” data center was not chosen by chance; it is a new data center practicing innovation and having good energy efficiency, I have noticed them for a long time. Already, several server cabinets with ultra-efficient liquid cooling are working in it, which I wrote earlier in my article “Dedicated servers under water, literally !? Prospects for fish farming in servers ?! ” What can I say, the guys keep up with the times. It is nice when the financial side fades into the background, and innovation is primary.
A bit about the data center.The Switch AMS1 data center is part of the Switch Datacenter Group. The group's mission is to create and manage an ultra-energy-efficient network of data centers located in strategically important places. Switch AMS1 is no exception, because it is located in the business district of southeast Amsterdam, where one of the largest densities of international trunk networks in Europe is observed, which allows you to connect to the highest-level trunk operators on the most favorable conditions. The data center has a total area of 8.320 m2 / 89.555 ft2 and is equipped with the latest technology, adheres to the Carrier Neutral policy, when the subscriber can choose which Internet providers to use. And the choice is really huge!
Switch AMS1 has more than 460 fibers from 40 different backbone transport providers such as Level3, Verizon, Zayo, BT, Colt, KPN, Atrato, Cogent, euNetworks, Relined, as well as several Internet exchanges.
Customers are also offered the opportunity to have network connections with two separate Meet-Me-Rooms to connect their infrastructure. This means that customers are able to get a double redundancy network, thanks to physically separated routes.
Ecology.What do you think, what% of all global carbon emissions account for all existing data centers? More than 2%! This is a huge number, just think that such a huge burden on the environment is caused only by data centers! Of course, it is not as high as that of enterprises or automobiles, but it is relatively huge. This problem is well understood by Switch Datacenter Group, because their data centers comply with the latest international standards and in environmental terms, in terms of energy efficiency (PUE). While Amsterdam’s authorities are demanding that the city’s data centers adhere to a PUE energy efficiency indicator of no higher than 1.3 (with an average of 1.9 in the world market), the Switch Datacenter Group at the time of opening “Switch AMS1” in 2012 reached 1.27, and by the end of 2013, this figure was reduced to 1.08, thanks to the use of green energy suppliers and the use of unique technologies in the field of cooling and energy consumption. Which is certainly expensive, but in addition to reducing the burden on the environment, it also creates long-term economic benefits and the Switch Datacenter Group understands this.
Already now, in some segments of the data center, the aforementioned cooling in the liquid is used, which will allow in the future to reach PUE 0.9 and lower if the entire data center is transferred to this ultra-efficient revolutionary technology.
"Data Center for the order."I have always been of the opinion that it makes sense to build only very large data centers, if the task is to reduce operating costs and PUE to a minimum. This is obvious, because by default a larger data center receives more favorable conditions, both from an electricity supplier and from backbone providers, and there is more space for innovation. But what if you certainly need your own playground? It will be much more profitable to build a data center in a data center, and this solution will be no worse in terms of reliability, and even more reliable (a larger selection of backbone providers, a more extensive and well-coordinated team of specialists who will support the data center infrastructure). “Switch AMS1” offers such a service and is ready to organize mini data centers with an area of 500 m2 / 5381 ft2.
This solution was chosen, the initial infrastructure - 40 server cabinets and 100 Gb / s to the network with the possibility of a gradual increase in both the number of cabinets and the capacity of the network channels. And the most important result of this is complete freedom for our subscribers, which we wrote about above, with minimal operating costs for customers in the first place! It is time to reveal the details.
The essence of “complete freedom” in the “Switch AMS1” data center for our subscribers
1. We understand that not everyone knows how to plan and consider everything during the time and are ready to deliver / assemble a custom built solution for you during the working day, sometimes within an hour, and if VERY urgently - even on weekends and holidays at 99.9 % of cases! However, we still ask you not to hope for a chance, it may happen that you are not lucky, we will be sorted out by servers of some configuration, or 10-gigabyte inclusions will end (a large client will come and buy the whole reserve). Try to plan everything on time. For our part, we can only guarantee that we will make every effort to help you and provide equipment as soon as possible if you were unable to plan something.
2. All servers are connected with dedicated guaranteed communication channels with a bandwidth of gigabit at least how much traffic you need is determined by you! At any time, you can add traffic, either make it non-tariffable or increase the channel to the bandwidth you need. At the moment, we provide servers with 5, 10, 25 and 100TB of total traffic per month on a dedicated 1 Gb / s channel, as well as 1, 2 and 10-Gigabit connections, excluding traffic. Please note that due to the high cost of 10-gigabit connections, we do not always have the opportunity to keep them in a “hot reserve”. Also note that when switching from a 2-gigabit inclusion to a 10-gigabit one, the ip-address is most likely to change due to a significant difference in the technology of inclusions.
3. Now, when asking “I want to connect all my servers to a local network and rent a switch”, you don’t need to rent a private cabinet, it will be enough to order all the servers you need in ONE order and switch to them, as well as pay for interconnect (the fee depends on the network topology , the number of servers connected to the local network).
4. We are also ready to provide the ability to use hardware firewall and traffic balancers, as well as individual configurations and solutions. However, such orders will already require the conclusion of a long-term contract for a period of at least 1 year, or payment for this period, of course, with a good discount.
5. In all servers we provide IPMI for free.
Well, the best part is that the lowest possible prices for services in this data center are set, we have achieved that the cost of custom-built level services is close to the cost of standard services, and in some cases even lower due to the traffic limit.
You can order servers on this site through our website http://ua-hosting.com.ua/nl-servers.html , choosing in the configurator "Netherlands, DC Switch (Amsterdam), complete freedom, delivery within 1 business day + free IPMI with all servers! ”
In conclusion, I want to demonstrate some photos from the part of the data center where your servers are located, we will start from the kernel: The
room where custom built solutions are assembled for you:
Well, the isolated module, which hosts part of the subscribers: