Re: Advice about Qwest, Cogent, and Equinix facilities

[William Herrin <herrin-nanog () dirtside com>]

On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 10:32 AM, Jeffrey Negro <jnegro () billtrust com> wrote:
> My company is planning on implementing a new strategy for our web
> application deployment. [...] I would welcome any advice or
> experiences other nanog members may have with regards to these
> providers, as well as any suggestions about other providers that may fit
> the bill.

Two words: carrier neutral.

With a carrier neutral facility like Equinix you'll have a greater
wealth of data services available to you from a wide range of carriers
at on-net prices. And alternatives available when one of those
services doesn't pan out quite what the salesman claimed.

With a particular carrier's facility such as Verizon, Qwest, Level3 or
Cogent, you're more limited. Other carriers occasionally vend some
services there but the variety is generally very limited and they tend
to be much more expensive than the incumbent.

And God help you when you want to leave... The DNC moved out of the
Verizon Business data center in Ashburn VA in 2006 and tried to buy a
Verizon Business line at another data center in order to keep the IP
addresses. Verizon Business refused to move the IP address blocks to a
VB line outside of the data center. With a carrier neutral facility,
the carriers have no vested interest in keeping you in that particular
data center.

Regards,
Bill Herrin




-- 
William D. Herrin ................ herrin () dirtside com  bill () herrin us
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