Our Network
The1host.com Data Center
Industrial Grade Equipment for the Ultimate Performance and Reliability.
At The1host.com we believe that Raw Performance Equals Low Latency/High
Throughput. Therefore, we have built a network that can handle your data
transfer requirement with ease.
The1host.com recognizes that down time is not an option for your servers.
That's why we invest heavily in hardware and facilities that ensure your
site is up and running on the web 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The1host.com's Network Operations Center (NOC) features raised flooring.
This enables a constant flow of conditioned air and helps to maintain uniform
room temperature at all times. In addition, raised flooring reduces static
and ensures a professional, computer grade environment for your server.
The facility is equipped with a Raytheon fire suppression system, designed
to immediately extinguish fire and protect equipment and personnel. The
command center is controlled via automatic doors to further secure and
protect the equipment.
Finally, the NOC is located in a secure, monitored, class A building
with a minimum number of approved personnel allowed access to highly sensitive
areas and equipment. A detailed record of employee and visitor entry is
maintained at all times.
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Connected to Three Backbones
The1host.com NOC is OnNet with GlobalCenter (GC), Qwest Communications
and GTE through three separate bandwidth-on-demand connections which enter
our building.
GC, a Tier 1 provider whose 13,000-mile fiber optic network and Dense
Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology provide an enormous 460 gigabytes
per second (Gbps) of capacity worldwide, has an Asynchronous Transfer Mode
(ATM) fiber node located just a few floors below the The1host.com NOC.
Qwest comes into the area with an OC-12 line and plans to upgrade their
connection to an OC-48 in the near future. They also have an ATM fiber
node floors below the The1host.com NOC. Our Qwest connection enables The1host.com
to offer additional redundancy and better routes to Europe, Latin America
and Asia. With our carriers, our router has up to 150,000 possible routes
to send each packet of traffic.
Genuity, a division of GTE, is our third Tier One Internet backbone.
Genuity provides excellent network performance as a result of their high-speed
peering arrangements with other Tier One Internet backbone providers. The
GTE global network delivers customers directly onto the Internet via a
high-speed connection to its private, super-capacity backbone, including
17,000 miles of fiber and OC192 capacity. It is comprised of more than
800 U.S. local access points and approximately 1,500 international local
access points in more than 150 countries.
Furthermore, because of these unique connections, The1host.com does
not need to link to the Internet though an OC3 or T3 Telecom circuit. Instead,
independent cables run inside our building directly from the The1host.com
NOC to all three carriers points of presence. These lines can handle the
bandwidth of a T3 or an OC3 with DWDM. Plus, they handle several times
the bandwidth of an OC3. Whatever your bandwidth needs may be, The1host.com
has the scalability to meet them.
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Network Redundancy
The1host.com uses intelligent end-user routing software called Border
Gateway Protocol (BGP), between Qwest, GC and GTE, who use the same protocol.
BGP identifies which path is the most efficient for each data packet and
then routes the packet to its destination on the fastest path. This increases
the speed at which web pages sent from our NOC arrive at their destination.
Studies have shown that the most common reason for downtime is circuit
failure on Tier 1 provider backbones, the major data highways. To guard
against this potential problem, we have three Tier-1 providers. If one
experiences problems, we can route traffic down the other one. Furthermore,
because we are OnNet with GlobalCenter, Qwest and GTE, we share their digital
distribution architecture, which includes private peering network connections
to major Internet carriers such as MCI, Sprint, UUNET, EUNET, AT&T,
AOL, Best, Erols, @Home, IBM Advantis and others. These private peering
arrangements allow The1host.com to exchange packets of data with every
major backbone carrier in a one-to-one environment quickly and efficiently.
In addition, GC has high-speed links to eight public exchanges including
both MAE East and West and several NAPS. Through these public exchanges,
customers have the ability to reach their site, no matter from where they
are coming on the Internet.
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Network Reliability
Industry analysis reveals that 70% of downtime over ten hours with
any ISP is caused by telephone circuit failure. Since our NOC is in the
same building as Global Center, Qwest and GTE, circuit failure is virtually
eliminated because there is no phone circuit between our providers and us.
Instead, there is a direct connection between our Cisco 7500 routers and
theirs.
The1host.com's providers also have peering connections with other major
Tier 1 providers, which allows traffic to be switched to alternate backbones
should the need arise.
Too often providers operate their networks at three to four times responsible
capacity. As a result, their corresponding transfer times reach over 300ms.
The1host.com's network daily average is 27% of its capacity, with midday
peak spikes reaching only 33% capacity. The1host.com guarantees clients
will be carried off our network in less than 80ms over a five minute average
at any time of day or night.
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Uninterruptible Power System
To guard against local power failures, The1host.com has two industrial-grade,
three phase Liebert UPS systems. These act as back-up batteries, maintaining
uninterrupted power in case of surges or power outages. With these backup
systems in place, we can keep our network up and running indefinitely without
relying on external power.
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Industrial-Grade Air Conditioners
The1host.com's NOC has two Liebert ten ton industrial air conditioners,
which condition our computer rooms and operations center. Our computer
room is kept at an optimal temperature of 65 degrees fahrenheit.
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Custom Web Servers
The1host.com's web servers are custom-built industrial machines designed
for a 24/7 web serving environment. All The1host.com servers are equipped
with dual redundant 450-watt power supplies, hot swap Seagate Baracuda/Cheetah
drives and force-filtered cooling systems. In addition, our NOC is equipped
with an inventory of identically configured, burned-in standby servers.
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Hot Swap Seagate Drives
The drives and drive bays of all The1host.com servers are constructed
from high-grade aluminum, and rest in shock mounted drive cages, which
adds to the durability of the hardware. The1host.com's drives proudly feature
the lowest failure rate in the industry.
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Redundant Hot Swap Power Supplies
Each server employs dual-redundant hot swap power supplies. If a power
supply were to fail, the server would continue running with power from
the alternate supply. Meanwhile, alarms would alert a technician, who would
quickly restore redundancy. In the meantime, servers and client sites would
experience no downtime.
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Standby Servers
We keep spare servers on-line of all CPU configurations. If a server
were to experience a hardware failure, we would turn a key, grab the handle
on the drive, pull it out, and insert it into an identical standby CPU.
We would then reboot the second machine and the server would be up and
running again in a matter of minutes.
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