I thought this would be fun for people in and around the area.
I will be hosting a tour of our colo facility and hosting infrastructure located in Asheville, NC
Have you ever wondered what goes on at a web hosting company? Wondered about what the inside of a colocation facility looks like? Ever wished you were hosted somewhere where the company was happy to show you around the server room?
HotDrupal is a Drupal hosting company based in Black Mountain, NC with company owned servers in Asheville, NC
We host in a local non-profit colo facility that works with many local colleges and universities, putting money back into North Carolina to help expand the reach and capacity of the Internet into rural and outlying under served mountain communities. We have a strong commitment to the environment via purchase of RoHS compliant and high efficiency servers and network equipment.
This will be a short tour showing you the colocation facility, server infrastructure, and discussions about what goes on inside a web hosting server network.
As this is an access controlled building a RSVP/signup is required.
As a general rule "if you can't bring it on an airplane, you can't bring it inside here" and all people who enter must go through metal detectors. For those with implanted medical devices we have trained security personnel with hand held wands.
All bags, coats, and other bulky items must pass through an x-ray machine. Your belongings may be screened for bombs and explosive substances. Seriously.
Comments
Neat
Sounds like fun! I wish that I lived closer to Asheville. Let me know if you ever plan on having a weekend tour.
I'll hit you up another time
I'd be interested but I won't be able to make the trip on a Monday. I'm with JuliaKM... if you ever have a weekend tour I'd be interested.
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@foggyperspectiv | foggyperspective.com (blog)
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That is a great thing indeed.
I do need a good host like this to move one or two small to medium sized drupal based sites to such a host. Is this same level of care extended to overseas customers or those from variety of countries ?
Some things I would like to know however :
How future-proof is the host ?
That is, many a times with very reliable and smooth-going hosts the original owner or the key-person has sold the company leaving customers in water or the key technical person has left causing a downfall in service.
While nothing is permanent on earth I would like to opt for a trouble-free same operators and persons at my webhost at least for 5 to 10 years :)
How good are the backup services and whether they have 24x7 ticket with real solutions and
whether they have a tranparent customer to customer forum to share webhosting problems ( not drupal problems) seem also very important.
Hi Minesota
Sorry for not responding sooner, hopefully if you were looking for quick answers you would have contacted us directly or called!
Losing a key technical person probably won't happen as the owner is the technical person. This is something I've been doing for a long time, I've been on the Internet since 1986 and working with web hosting since the early 1990's. I do this because it is fun, not because I'm trying to make a bunch of cash. Hosting is a commodity business at this point in time - no one is going to offer anyone a lot of cash for a hosting company. You're basically worth what your monthly net revenue is.
We have a 24x7 trouble ticket system, though we're not promising to be your personal Drupal Consultant in exchange for your $10/month.
We do backups once every 24 hours. We're debating a customer forum and are looking at implementing something in the next few months.
Weekend Tours
For those interested in weekends, there is a restriction in place on visitors during the weekend. Any day of the week I am open to doing tours.
Steve
Whoa .. your only a few
Whoa .. your only a few mountains away from me! How cool is that!!!? I will be contacting you shortly.
I would love for our host-provider to be Asheville based!