Primary misconceptions of London Data Centres

The benefits of a datacentre outside London and the added benefits of hosting with Netcetera

It is often difficult to acknowledge the difference between myths and truths and recently it has been publicised that myths within the data centre industry have now been commonly accepted as truths. This is leading companies to make decisions regarding their colocation or hosting choices that ultimately are just not right for their business. This is a concerning prospect given that now more than ever before, it is vitally important that businesses get the most out of their investments and ultimately make the right decisions with regards to data management.

London is widely believed to be the model location for your data. The capital is close to transport links, central to businesses and on the hub of the fibre networks. With all this in mind it is no wonder London is seen as a prime data centre location. However, in reality the picture is not all that it seems. London is a minefield.  Data centres located in the heart of the city are competing for power and fibre on an already oversubscribed network. This leads to an increased risk in outages and downtime for your servers. It is also very important to remember why businesses use colocation services in the first place – to ensure business continuity.

The Solution

Managed hosting and data centre provider, Netcetera, has tackled the London space shortage with their expansion into a new zone of a 10 million pound development on the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man and Netcetera’s datacentre is perfect for co-location and disaster recovery services. Power is supplied from three of the most modern power stations in the UK, the data center has natural security provided by the sea and the resilient high capacity fibre optic cables connected to both Manchester and London mean that connectivity is superb.

Keeping your data Secure

London is a prime suspect for terrorist attacks and the 7/7 bombings only confirmed this. Any potential threats could result in access being shutdown indefinitely leaving customers in the lurch. Another misconception is that data centre space in London is more expensive because you are receiving much better quality and higher specifications than elsewhere in the country. In reality though London is an expensive city, space is scarce and as a result most data centres are not in purpose built buildings but in converted existing buildings which are not going to be as fully specified as a purpose built site.

Giving you room to grow

Companies are being restricted from expansion by both space and power shortages in their current data centers. Here on the Isle of Man we are in a great position to offer co-location at an all-in-one price for any business. Due to this, banking and financial services companies are showing particular interest in Netcetera. A purpose built data centre such as Netcetera’s Dataport is a prime example of the benefits of a building designed specifically for the bespoke needs of a data centre. Secure parking and facilities such as meeting rooms and kitchen facilities are potentially high priorities in terms of security and comfort for both customers and their clients alike.

Datacentre Access

Another perception is that being a city that never sleeps London data centres can offer 24/7 access to their facilities. This is not the case, many data centres have to adhere to strict planning restrictions which mean that access procedures can be very slow limiting or even prohibiting night time or weekend access. Most businesses will need to maintain an uninterrupted service so they will need access when required at any time of the day or night. The Isle of Man is only a maximum of an hour by plane from any UK airport and clients using Netcetera’s co-location facilities have 24hr access, 365 days a year. Clients can also manage their servers remotely with virtual server management services.

Datacentre Tour

Rather than basing your decision on a set of assumptions, seeing the site for yourself before committing to a contract will help to ensure that you don’t get tied into a contract which you will later regret. A data centre that values you as a customer and appreciates your business should offer a personal guided tour as a matter of course; this is the only method in which to gain a real perspective on whether or not the data centre is the right one for your business.

Datacentre benefits at a glance

In terms of infrastructure The Dataport features an exceptionally highly specified infrastructure which at its core incorporates 2(N+1) power, generator and UPS. Redundant cooling and fire protection and suppression systems, specialised heat and smoke sensors, raised flooring, scalable power for future expansion, 24×7 technical support 365 days a year.

Physical Security

The standard of security at The Dataport is second to none. That it’s housed in a building that was previously used to manufacture industrial diamonds says a lot about The Dataport’s physical security arrangements. In fact, the entire Freeport zone is a fenced site and access can only be gained via a barrier controlled from a manned security lodge. Visitors must pre-warn of arrival and provide acceptable photo identification, before gaining admittance.

IT Security

While physical security is important, it would be rendered redundant if not for Netcetera’s provision of the world’s most advanced IT security measures. Netcetera partners with global technology and IT security brands and offers specialist management services so that customers can focus on their core business and never have to worry about security risks.

London vs The Isle of Man – Added benefits

Netcetera’s success is in part down to its location on the Isle of Man, a low tax jurisdiction that is extremely friendly to e-business. The government boasts that the Island gives its residents and businesses the ‘freedom to flourish’ and does what it can to make this happen with several incentives. For example, internet-based companies could realise tax savings of up to 47.5% of total profit. There is also a range of grants available. The government prides itself on being flexible and responsive to the needs of business and this experience is borne out across many industries on the Island.

What are the next steps?

To speak to one of our Hosting Specialists about what our services can do for you, or to arrange a Data Centre Tour (virtual or in-person) or for any other queries, please fill out our Enquiry Form, call 0800 061 2801, Request A Call BackChat Online or Request a Brochure.

Netcetera in Top 10 Most Popular companies at Dedicated Server Directory for April 2010

Netcetera has once again been selected as one of the Top 10 Most Popular companies at Dedicated Server Directory UK for April 2010!

This is a great testament to the quality and cost-effectiveness of our range of  Windows VPS servers and our range of Managed Dedicated Servers.

Need to improve the performance of your hosting?

Contact one of our Hosting Specialists to see how you could benefit from Netcetera’s superior network reliability and service.

Dedicated Server Directory UK – March Award Winner

Netcetera has once again been selected as one of theTop 25 Most Popular companies at Dedicated Server Directory UK for March 2010!Dedicated Server Award Winner

This is a great testament to the quality and cost-effectiveness of our range of Windows VPS servers and our range of Managed Dedicated Servers.

Need to improve the reliability of your hosting?

Contact one of our Hosting Specialists to see how you could benefit from Netcetera’s superior network reliability and service.

Netcetera partners with R1Soft

Isle of Man, THE BRITISH ISLES, 11 March 2010 — Netcetera, one of Europe’s leading managed hosting and data center providers, today announced it has implemented R1Soft Continuous Data Protection® (CDP) software to offer a new self-managed backup service to its Windows and Linux clients.

R1Soft CDP enables Netcetera to provide its clients with many beneficial features including an easy-to-use Web interface for client self-service and bare-metal restore capabilities for minimal down time. Through the web-based administration portal, clients can easily manage their own high-performance backups and restores. By allowing the delegation of administrative functions, R1Soft CDP simplifies the entire process for clients and administrators.

R1Soft’s disk-to-disk server backup software takes snapshots of data at the block level, bypassing the file system to increase performance and significantly reduce network resource usage. This next-generation technology will bring Netcetera clients a whole new level of data protection with continuous, high-performance backups. With the bare-metal restore feature, clients gain the ability to restore an entire server to a previous state directly from any point-in-time snapshot without installing the O/S.

“It’s important for us to offer our clients an easy-to-use, powerful backup and restore service and R1Soft is reliable, feature-rich backup software that allows us to offer this at an affordable price,” said Tim Cass, CTO of Netcetera. “Plus, a quality backup solution that works efficiently means happy clients.”

Netcetera is offering a variety of backup service options that will start at just £10/month for 10GB of space and range up to 1000 GB space. For more information about Netcetera’s backup services visit:http://www.netcetera.co.uk/servers/backup

Dedicated Server Directory UK – December Award Winner

Top 25 Most Popular Web HostNetcetera has once again been selected as one of the Top 25 Most Popular companies at Dedicated Server Directory UK for December 2009!

This marks a great end to the year, with the launch of  our Windows VPS servers along with a full range of Managed Dedicated Servers.

Need to improve the reliability of your hosting?

Contact one of our Hosting Specialists to see how you could benefit from Netcetera’s superior network reliability and service.

Netcetera in most reliable hosting list for November 2009

Netcetera have once again been listed in the Top 10 of most reliable web hosts worldwide, for November 2009.

We have recently bolstered the reliability and performance of our network and service functions by investing in a comprehensive infrastructure upgrade. The investments were driven by significantly increased adoption of the company’s business hosting accounts, often used by UK developers and resellers for ecommerce, transactional and programming functionality for businesses.

Netcraft measures and makes available the response times of fifty leading hosting providers’ sites. The performance measurements are made at fifteen minute intervals from separate points around the Internet, and averages are calculated over the immediately preceding month. Netcetera ranked 9th in the world according to real-time data displayed at: http://uptime.netcraft.com/perf/reports/Hosters

Want to improve the reliability of your hosting?

Contact one of our Hosting Specialists to see how you could benefit from Netcetera’s superior network reliability and service.

Netcetera named as Best Colocation Provider Award Winner – again!

We are pleased to announce that Netcetera has been selected for an award for Best Colocation Provider in the UK for June 2009 by the Dedicated Server Directory.

We would like to thank all of our clients for their support and look forward to continuing to provide the high level of service they expect.

For full details of our Colocation services please click here.

Netcetera selected as Finalists in the ISPA Awards

Netcetera has been nominated in the category of Best Shared Hosting

Best Shared Hosting
Best Shared Hosting

at the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) awards. The shortlist was chosen from a record number of entrants and also after a 3 month service testing regime by ISPA’s testing partners, Epitro.

Fingers crossed for a good result on the 9th of July at the ISPA award ceremony!