Welcome to the High Availability Hosting Blog

The latest update to the Sheffield Data Centre website is now live at:  http://www.sheffielddatacentre.com

We’ve included options for 16A and 32A full racks, 8A half racks, and single servers up to 4U.  We’ve also simplified our pricing for extra power and bandwidth, with extra power at only £22 per month per Amp, and extra bandwidth at only £33 per month per synchronous Megabit.

The current lead-time for half racks and full racks is around 5 working days, and lead-times for single servers are as quick as next day subject to space.

The response to our go-live has been fantastic, with potential clients already queueing to come and see us.  If you’re interested in visiting us give us a call on 0114 228 0022 or email sales@sheffielddatacentre.com

We’ve also got some advertising going live next month into some local Sheffield publications, as below.

Sheffield Data Centre Now Open advert

It’s with delightful pleasure we announce the first customer has moved servers into the Sheffield Data Centre.  A local web hosting company occupied “Rack 3″ yesterday and their kit is now live on the Internet.

We are now accepting orders and inviting customers to colocate kit with us.  Current lead-times on half and full racks are around 5 working days.  Single rack servers can be moved in immediately.

• Full rack (up to 16A):  £575 per month.
• Full rack (up to 32A:  £700 per month.
• Half rack (up to 8A):  £295 per month.
• 1U single server (1A):  £27 per month.
• 2U single server (1A):  £36 per month.
• 3U single server (1A):  £45 per month.
• 4U single server (1A):  £54 per month.
• Tower server (1A):  £35 per month – lead time July 2009.
• Extra power available at £22 per Amp per month.
• IP addresses up to a full class C (254 usable) available.

(All prices are ex-VAT)

Another 8 racks were delivered yesterday, with another 4 due either today or Monday.  Cabling works on these racks will begin straight away.

Our VMware Dedicated Server platform (www.hahosting.com), and our Web & hosted Exchange platform (www.thevirtualcloud.com), will be moved from the current colocation providers to the Sheffield Data Centre in early July.

The construction of the Sheffield Data Centre is split over 3 phases, with phase 1 is now complete.  The next phase will see the backup generator installed; final project plans for this will be drawn up in July.  Phase 3 (FM200 fire suppression) will be later in the year.

The web site will be updated over the weekend, but you can take this as official that we are open for business.

Contact us on 0114 228 0022 or sales@sheffielddatacentre now!

It’s with great pleasure I announce that the hosting room of the Sheffield Data Centre is complete.

The first 4 racks are fully installed and (nearly) cabled.  We’ve this week placed an order for an additional 12 racks to meet customer demand, and we’ve started to show the first prospective clients round the building.

The “snag list” is nearly complete too, with only a few jobs remaining – most notibly the gassing of the air-conditioners which is scheduled to happen this Thursday. 

Today was also the day our 100Mbit fibre went live, with a connection straight through to the Internet.  We’ve now got a few days of testing and firewall building ahead, which is where the “fun” starts  :-)

So the question everybody’s been asking us… “when are you going to open??”.  Providing the air-con gassing goes ok, and the network build is complete and tested over the weekend, we’ll begin to offer colocation from next week.  So if you’re interested in colocation with us, now’s the time to email us and arrange a visit.

We’re booking people in to see us from next Monday (22nd), so either give us a call on 0114 228 0022 or email sales@sheffielddatacentre.com.  If you’ve already got your details registered with us you’ll be getting a more personalised invitation later this week, or you could queue jump and contact us!

And finally the usual update pics…

Computer room build complete

100Mbit fibre live

This week we hit a major milestone taget – getting the internal “heavy” construction complete, and taking delivery of the first 4 racks to go in the Sheffield Data Centre.

All the major work within the computer room is now complete, and we can turn our attention to cleaning and removing waste from the computer room.  Elsewhere the carpet tiles have been delivered and are being installed, the air-conditioners are due to be gassed next week and the first phase of Cat6 wiring has begun.  We should also be able to use our office as an office from next week!

The first four racks are due to be positioned Monday, these racks are for the internal comms, CCTV, fibre, infrastructure servers etc… and for the first phase of customer colocation.  Extra racks are on order and will be delivered when appropriate.

We’ll be making an “opening” announcement very soon - but we’re committed to having the first phase of colocation live before the end of June.  Check the blog next week for updates.

Latest pictures…

Computer room construction complete

Rack van

...here they come

First 4 racks ready to be installed next week

We’ve had lots of enquiries regarding half racks – and I’m pleased to announce the Half Rack Specification and pricing is now available for colocation in The Sheffield Data Centre.

Tier:           2
Lead time:      June 2009
Redundancy:     N+1
Space:          18U usable in 800mm (w) x 900mm (d) racks
Access:         24hr with own key fob and rack keys
Power:          1150W (5A) @ 230VAC included
IP Addresses:   Up to 16 included
Bandwidth:      3Mbit FREE until 2010
Network ports:  Up to 2 per server 

Half racks will cost £295 per month + VAT, and will be available when The Sheffield Data Centre opens in June. 

Extras:

• If you need more power than the 5A included, this is available up to 12A at additional cost.
• If you need more bandwidth than the 3Mbit included, this is available up to 50Mbit at additional cost.
• If you need extra IP addresses than the 16 included, these are available up to 64 addresses at additional cost (more may require justification to RIPE).

The full specification for Half Racks can be found at the newly updated Sheffield Data Centre website:

http://www.sheffielddatacentre.com

Further build updates and announcements will be posted as they become available.  If in the meantime you’d like to know more about our half racks, full racks, or single server colocation – give us a call on 0114 228 00 22 where we’ll be happy to help.

- Stuart.

After the Sheffield Data Centre opens on the 10th June, we’re offering all colocation customers free bandwidth until 2010.

Single server customers (rack server or tower server) will enjoy 1Mbit free bandwidth, and full rack customers will enjoy 5Mbit free bandwidth.

Full rack colocation details here:
http://www.sheffielddatacentre.com/colocation-racks.aspx

Single rack server colocation details here:
http://www.sheffielddatacentre.com/colocation-servers.aspx

Single tower server colocation details here:
http://www.sheffielddatacentre.com/colocation-towers.aspx

You get 1 IP address included with single servers, and up to 32 IP addresses with full racks.  If you need more IP addresses this is possible but may require justification to RIPE, if you can justify it you can have as many as you want!!

High Availability Hosting Limited are proud to announce the construction of a 25 rack hosting facility in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.  The Sheffield Data Centre will go live on Wednesday 10th June 2009 for customers wishing to colocate a server, a full rack, or outsource an existing IT suite to us.

Located in Holbrook, South East Sheffield (S20), we’re ideally located for easy access from the M1, A57 and Sheffield City Centre.  The Data Centre will have 1050U of usable rack space, and be able to host a mixture 900 physical and virtual servers at full capacity.

Keep an eye on the blog for updates as we begin the two month fitting out period, we’ll update the blog regurally with new information and pictures as we progress.  Your questions and comments are always welcome, simply get in touch!!

Stuart Stones, Rory Delahoyde – Company Directors
High Availability Hosting Limited / The Sheffield Data Centre
www.hahosting.com
www.thevirtualcloud.com
www.sheffielddatacentre.com
enquiries@sheffielddatacentre.com