For better understanding of servers and datacenters I have a few questions regarding running servers, security, tools, types of connections and etc.. I hope you guys can help me answer some of these questions, I am 20 years old in college taking Computer Networking classes and I plan on starting a small datacenter by my self or with a partner sharing incomes. My dad is willing to let me use one of his office buildings that recently got disoccupied, he rents them for a living he's willing to let me use one if I pay for all the expenses and taxes that the government charges on office buildings. The office is not the biggest but it has a really nice shape and two big rooms inside that I could use to store the servers. It has a really nice parking lot, it's not very big but it's enough for a start. It has one bathroom, 2 small office space, and two bigger rooms. I currently run a Web Hosting business so I do have some experience but I am not using any of my own server, the servers that I rent belongs to interserver.com that I believe is located in New Jersey, United States. however, I do own 5 Rackmount servers 3 from dell and the other two are HP I got them online pretty cheap. What type of internet connection is needed to start a small web hosting datacenter? I plan on offering VPS, Dedicated, Shared and Domains. Who offers these type of internet connections and I live in ohio will it be available here? What tools are required to protect my site and servers from being DDOS Attacked? I've heard of Cisco hardware but is that the best option and how does Sisco work? When under DDOS attack what should I do? What is Cloud Hosting, and why is it so expensive? Why isn't big companies such as Stormondemand and liquidweb using centos 6 yet? It's supposed to be the latest version isn't it? Bandwidth, we the "Web Hosting Provider" have unlimited bandwidth? Where does it come from and why do we set limits to clients? One thing that I don't understand, how are we able to provide each server with an unique ip address using the same internet connection? Anyways those are my questions for now, I hope you guys can help me answer them. Thanks, Richard.
No disrespect meant, but if you're planning to run a datacentre, and you're asking such basic questions, you're not really in a position to be running one. I wouldn't move any server into a DC until it had the following BASIC infrastructure... 1. Continuous and redundant power supplies. By this is mean an industrial power supply backed up by a proper DC-wide UPS system, backed up by N+1 generators with enough capacity to run the whole set-up. I'd also be looking for at least 2 completely separate power circuits, from diverse sub-stations, each with a UPS and N+1 generators 2. Multiple and Diverse Connections Different bandwidth coming into the building a different points from multilple suppliers. At least 3 different providers with at least 2 of them being Tier1 like Level3 3. Clean and Cool Air I want air to be filtered (clean) and then cooled with redundant HVAC systems 4. Fire and smoke suppression Gotta have this 5. 24/7 security That's just the basic infrastructure, never mind the other questions you ask. Very few office buildings will comply with this. A DC is a specialist building that can cost multi-millions just to set up. Not saying you couldn't get away with less, and if it's just for yourself then that might be fine, but if you expect people to pay for your services you need to have a good basic set-up first.
Thanks for the reply, No disrespect taken. I'm just a beginner I have some experience but not a lot everyone has to start some where right? Big or small, I'm not talking about starting a multi-millionaire operation. Like I mentioned above I wanna start really small and work my way up to the top as I get more and more clients. I've seen really small web hosting data centers before only one small room full of servers and cool AC system. That's where I got my idea to start one from, my dad is willing to help me out he's already paying for my college education and letting me use one the empty offices if I decide to go forward with this. I don't have the money to rent a million dollar/month data center building nor I have the money to buy $30,000 generators, I'm sure an office building would do the job for now, as I slowly grow my business I would have the money for new servers, generators and etc.. About security - all the offices that my dad rents including the one he's willing to let me use are equipped with ADT intrusion detection, and some type of fire and carbon monoxide detection. He was forced the equip the offices with these service for lower insurance fees, although it may not be enough it's nice to have these service. My College classes will also help me a lot with my project as we take apart servers and do a whole bunch of stuff with them. I was trying to find out the basics of running a data center as I never owned nor operated one. Again, I thank you for your reply and for all the useful information in it. I sure will do some research on the above mentioned information but please, try being a little more encouraging next time, you brought my hopes down a little but I do have to face the reality.
Try http://www.webhostingtalk.com - a good hosting resource. They have several threads on this very subject (e.g. http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=921204)