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New State of the Art Tier One Data Center
Redundant Connections
Multiple Levels of Security
Multiple Back-Up Generators
Network Operation Center
Our Network Operations is managed out of Denver, Colorado in a new State of the Art Tier1 Network Operations Center (NOC).
Data Center Features:
- Superior Network Reliability
- Accelerated Time to Market
- Scalability
- 24 x 7 monitoring
- 24 x 7 on-call staff
- Raised floors
- HVAC with separate cooling zones
- Multiple levels of security
- 24x7 card key access
- Biometric hand scan entry system
- Video surveillance
- Multiple levels of Fire suppression:
- Early Warning System
- FM-200 gas-based fire suppression system
- Double pre-action dry pipe sprinkler system
- Multiple redundant Power back-up
- Continuous, uninterruptible power supply
- Multiple standby generators
- Environmental Monitoring Systems
- Maintained consistant temperature and humidity
Connectivity:
Tier-1 network
- 2 OC-12's with Qwest and MCI connecting to Verio Chicago and Verio Palo Alto
- 2 OC-3s with Qwest and MCI connecting to the same points
- OC-192 Fiber to the data center
Here is a link to our network map:
http://home.verio.net/company/technology/networkmapWORLD.cfm
Routers and Equipment
- 2 Juniper M20 Backbone Routers
- 2 Foundry BigIron4000 Giga Ethernet Switches
- 4 Cisco 6500 Aggregation Switch/Routers, These routers have multiple connections to our backbone routers.
- The backbone is a Tier 1 backbone.
The data center has connections to many different Internet backbones including UUNet, Sprint, Cable and Wireless, CRL, Qwest, Exodus, Agis and Net Axs. We also have private and direct peering DS3's set up between our location and that of American Online and PSI-Net. The data center also operates its own DS3 to Mae East to peer with many of the smaller Tier One providers as well as operating another DS3 to the ATM switch located there.
By connecting to multiple backbones, the data can be distributed through many sources. This architectural design also means that the network connections are not dependent upon any single Internet backbone. Thus, when problems occur traffic rerouting is automatic, thereby ensuring the integrity of the network and continued access for our high-speed dedicated server clients. This takes the term "multi-homing" to a whole new level.
Presently bandwidth utilization is 25% during peak traffic times. Therefore, the network is very flexible. If one of the backbone connections experiences problems, the traffic can simply be rerouted over other paths, thereby ensuring that users receive fast access times to sites hosted on our network.
In addition, the network runs Border Gate Protocol (BGP4). BGP is used for a provider with more than one access point to the Internet. It helps create a truly redundant network. In fact, in an ideal situation, a leased-line failure should result in the BGP routing session to close on a bad leased-line causing the router on a working circuit to begin accepting the additional traffic.
In other words, traffic from a downed circuit is redistributed across other circuits, thereby maintaining network integrity. Providers that are multi-homed and correctly setup can actually be more reliable than a single backbone provider because they have multiple paths to multiple providers.
Internal Connectivity
A provider's local area network is not often enough, sometime being seen as a point of latency. The two main sources of latency for a full-time Internet connection are the user's local area network and the Internet provider's local area network. The local network is anchored by Cisco 5500 Catalyst Series Ethernet switches and high-end Cisco routers (like a Cisco 7513). This top-of-the-line network hardware ensures that data requests get to their destination and back out of the network as fast as possible. We use Ethernet switches instead of hubs because of their speed and their security capabilities. Whereas only one computer plugged into a hub can talk at one time, all the machines connected to a switch can talk at the same time. This means more data can travel through a switch and each server acts as its own node on the network. Furthermore, since each server is its own node on the network, it is difficult for hackers to trace data packets with sensitive information (i.e. passwords) to a particular server.
Servers on the network do not share a single path (T3). Instead, the servers are connected into a high-speed Ethernet switch. This switch is connected to the core router at the data center. From the core router, data is sent back to the end user across the fastest available path. Whereas, statically routing traffic over one path creates a single point of failure, this distributed architecture ensures that users can access data extremely quick and have multiple paths both into and out of our network.
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