Welcome to the High Availability Hosting Blog

Over the weekend we’ve updated the 3 x High Availability Hosting Limited websites:

www.hahosting.com
www.thevirtualcloud.com
www.sheffielddatacentre.com

The main updates are over on TheVirtualCloud – where the full Flexible Cloud Servers information is now live, along with prices, examples etc…

Take a look at http://www.thevirtualcloud.com/cloudservers/default.aspx for all the details!

Other updates include links between the sites, a full list of all services (all sites) on the homepage of www.hahosting.com, and the removal of legacy VMware hosting.

We’ve this week updated our 3 websites:

• www.sheffielddatacentre.com
• www.thevirtualcloud.com
• www.hahosting.com

We’ve refreshed some out-of-date content, added some new information, restructured the menu’s to make them easier to navigate, and fixed some spelling errors etc… (thanks to everyone who pointed them out to us… ahem!)

We’ve also posted the first signs of Hyper-V which (quietly) started going live this week.  We’re now taking orders from existing customers for Hyper-V based dedicated servers, and we’ll be opening up orders to the world at large soon.

If you get chance to have a look at our updated sites, and want to feedback anything to us (good or bad) please do!  Some of the changes this time round came from user feedback!

Thanks,
Stuart.

We’ve today updated the HA Hosting website:

• Removal of Solaris server hosting
• First mentions of Hyper-V hosting (coming soon)
• Graphics updates

Hyper-V Virtual Dedicated Servers will be available soon, new lower pricing and specific details will be posted soon.  In the meantime if you’d like to know more about our Hyper-V Virtual Dedicated Servers, contact us!

As of 01/01/2010 we will no longer be offering Solaris 10 Virtual Dedicated Servers for new orders.  Exsiting Solaris servers will continue to be hosted as before.

We are removing Solaris hosting from our list of Operating Systems in preperation for a new line-up of Virtual Dedicated Servers on our Microsoft Hyper-V cluster due to launch early 2010.

Details of our new server line-up will be posted on here as well as our website at www.hahosting.com in the new year.

The new websites for HA Hosting, TheVirtualCloud and The Sheffield Data Centre went live last night.  Information on every service we offer has been updated, some prices reduced, and new services introduced.  Along with a fresh new look based on a shared stylesheet and master page.

Major updates include:

• Single look and feel across all sites (and this blog!)
• Extra “value added” services added for VMware hosted Dedicated Servers (HA Hosting)
• Outlook Anywhere – now with same day setup (TheVirtualCloud)
• New Professional Web Hosting service added (TheVirtualCloud)
• SharePoint Hosting service added (TheVirtualCloud)
• Updated colocation services added (Sheffield Data Centre)
• New bandwidth offers and options added (Sheffield Data Centre)
• Extra services (firewalls, rDNS, Backups, SAN) added (Sheffield Data Centre)
• Extra data centre information, power, cooling, network etc… (Sheffield Data Centre)

Blog posts on specific services (such as the new Professional Web Hosting) will follow next week, in the meantime if you get a chance, check out our new websites at:

• www.hahosting.com
• www.thevirtualcloud.com
• www.sheffielddatacentre.com

Hello!  Firstly, hope you like the new look blog.  We’ve moved the blog from the old home on the Sheffield Data Centre website  to a dedicated site here at www.hahosting.info – the new blog will have news, info, updates and media from HA Hosting,  TheVirtualCloud and the Sheffield Data Centre.  All the content from the original blog is here too.

This new look and feel for the blog is a sneak preview of what our websites will look like when they’re updated next week.  All  our websites will have a shared theme and flow into each other with common menus and headers.

We’ve got a lot going on right now, and we’ll be posting detailed updates later, but here’s what we’re up to in November:

HA Hosting

• Trials are being planned of Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 with failover clustering for Virtual Dedicated Servers.
• Upgrade of the Client Control Panel due before christmas.

TheVirtualCloud

• New web hosting infrastructure on Windows Server 2008 is starting to be rolled out.
• Outlook Anywhere Hosted Exchange price reduced to just £6.50 per month for a 1GB mailbox.
• First trial customers for our upcoming Hosted SharePoint service are now live.
• Replacement DNS Name Servers are now live, customer migrations due soon.

Sheffield Data Centre

• Energy Saving Evaporative Cooling technology delivered to site, awaiting installation.
• Ground works for the site generator have started.
• Low Latency Network for gamers has been successfully trailed.
• Free Bandwidth Forever is being offered in the shared colo racks.
• 5Mbit for £50 per month package coming soon.

In the short term we’re working on the new cooling system in the Data Centre, preparing the network for the Unlimited Bandwidth Forever deals, and completing the rollout of the new web hosting infrastructure.  Detailed updates for everything will be posted soon, so watch this space!

Due to an outage last night at our previous colocation provider (one of many outages this year), we took the business decision to move our exising servers and SAN storage early into the Sheffield Data Centre.

The following services are now fully colocated within the Sheffield Data Centre:

• High Availability Hosting – VMware dedicated server hosting
• The Virtual Cloud – Web hosting, Exchange Hosting, Spam / Virus filtering
• Sheffield Data Centre – this website & blog
• Core networking / AD services / DNS services

All services were successfully migrated for 03:00 this morning (1st July), and DNS started to propagate quickly.  We worked through the night to ensure all applications were working post-migration.

We apologise for any inconvienience this may have caused (especially with slow DNS propagation beyond our control).

- Stuart.

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!

The Sheffield Data Centre website has been updated and is available at:

http://www.sheffielddatacentre.com

We’ve added the Half Rack specification, updated some details, and given the home page a make-over.

Also, we’ve updated the High Availability Hosting website, if you get a spare minute and want to know more about the company in general, as well as browse our other services including our VMware Hosted Dedicated Servers – pop over to:

http://www.hahosting.com

Back at the Data Centre – the raised floor under the rack locations has been layed, and is now being levelled (which is a very slow job!), the Cat6 cable is expected on site early next week ready for pulling, and the “Fire Door Keep Shut” signs have arrived!  *smile*.

Happy bank holiday everyone!

- Stuart.

- EDIT – latest internal pics!

Raised floor - towards office

Raised floor - towards loading bay