[Asterisk-biz] asterisk server colocation

[Justin B.Newman]

On Nov 22, 2004, at 11:27 PM, alex at pilosoft.com wrote:

> On Mon, 22 Nov 2004, Matthew Simpson wrote:
>
>> Our company has been offering Asterisk Server colocation, and we would
>> like some feedback from the * community on colo.
> We do the same, so I think I can give you good feedback ;)

We also offer something similar... a Dedicated Server product.  (We 
would just colo a box if someone wanted us to, but it's not been a 
priority for us, as our upstream offers the service as well).

>> 2. Would you rather colo Asterisk servers that you supply or would you
>> rather lease servers provided by the colocation provider?
> Lease servers with proper TDM cards.

Our Dedicated IAX product includes the box, the Digium card, AND a PRI. 
  Total price, $325 / mo.  The PRI includes all-you-can-eat inbound and 
100 DIDs.  We throw in IP bandwidth as long as the box is being used 
exclusively for VOIP.  (The bandwidth is pretty good, traceroute to 
lucy.binhost.com for a sample route).

>> * Tier 1 Data centers -- no "basement IT", our premeier buildings are
>> 1950 Stemmons Freeway, Dallas TX [infomart] and 2323 Bryan Suite 700
>> [our own colo, not shared -- same floor with MCI and Qwest] Dallas, TX
> For comparison, we also have presence in carrier facilities (60 Hudson,
> 9th floor-TelX and 13th/XO, 111 8th Avenue -room 1515/NYCX, 25
> Broadway/Telehouse) as well as operating our own facility at 55 Broad 
> St
> (we have ALGX/XO/MCI/Qwest fiber gear 100ft away from our DC). Our core
> links are CWDM and Sonet over our dark fiber, which means TDM stays 
> TDM no
> matter in which colo you take them.

We colocate in a Central Office.  Not a carrier hotel, but ... a nice 
space nonetheless.  The facility is operated by a CLEC, but was 
originally a Bell Atlantic CO.  For access to carriers not "on net" in 
the facility, the Verizon CO is 200' away.

> I would add that it is important to have staff with clue. There are 
> enough
> of mickey mouse operations by people who trying to make a buck by 
> "buying
> 1 million minutes at 1.29c and selling 1000 accounts with 1000 minutes 
> at
> 1.3c". That business is silly.

Further, it's important to ask:

- If you're including a PRI, are you offering long distance?  Is that 
ld getting routed via IP ever?
- Is usage billing (where applicable) done in 6s increments or 60s?  
The cost savings for 6s is around 30%... (We bill in 6s on our 
Dedicated product.

Yours,

-jbn
Justin B Newman
Binhost Technologies
http://www.binhost.com