I work for a small software development company that delivers hosting automation and spam filtering to hosting companies. To better understand our problem domain we started a small hosting company (small meaning around 10 full racks). Besides teaching us a lot about the technical problems related to the hosting business, it has also given us a really good understanding of what matters and what doesn't when you choose a place for a dedicated server.
Make sure you choose somewhere that uses bgp4 routing with at least two bandwidth providers (if one of them is level3, thats a plus).
Avoid anybody who promises you free bandwidth. There is no such thing as free bandwidth - you will be throttled. Expect to pay around 50-60 cents pr. gb.
Avoid getting ip's owned by netgroup. Their actual bandwidth is quite good, but they have been a bit too willing to host porn and spam related companies, which could result in your ip being on several types of blacklists. This may not end up being a problem, but it could.
Ensure that they have their power set up properly. At least two separate feeds in each rack and either two power supplies in each server or a power switch before your server.
If you end up getting a virtual server, ask what hardware they are running, how many virtual servers pr. physical server and how fast they are willing to move your virtual server to another physical server if needed. If they can't answer these or are hesitant to giving you direct answers, avoid it...
Finally... don't listen too much to people complaining about lousy or slow service from a hosting provider. Good service is nice, but thats not what's going to keep your server running and there will always be people who feel they have been mistreated no matter how good the service is :-)
by Kasper Jeppesen — Jan 17
Make sure you choose somewhere that uses bgp4 routing with at least two bandwidth providers (if one of them is level3, thats a plus).
Avoid anybody who promises you free bandwidth. There is no such thing as free bandwidth - you will be throttled. Expect to pay around 50-60 cents pr. gb.
Avoid getting ip's owned by netgroup. Their actual bandwidth is quite good, but they have been a bit too willing to host porn and spam related companies, which could result in your ip being on several types of blacklists. This may not end up being a problem, but it could.
Ensure that they have their power set up properly. At least two separate feeds in each rack and either two power supplies in each server or a power switch before your server.
If you end up getting a virtual server, ask what hardware they are running, how many virtual servers pr. physical server and how fast they are willing to move your virtual server to another physical server if needed. If they can't answer these or are hesitant to giving you direct answers, avoid it...
Finally... don't listen too much to people complaining about lousy or slow service from a hosting provider. Good service is nice, but thats not what's going to keep your server running and there will always be people who feel they have been mistreated no matter how good the service is :-)