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Network Center (NC)
Our Servers are located in a Network Center (NC) which features
raised flooring. This enables a constant flow of conditioned air
and helps to maintain uniform room temperature at all times. In
addition, raised flooring reduces static and ensures a professional,
computer grade environment for our servers. The
facility is equipped with a Raytheon fire suppression system, designed
to immediately extinguish fire and protect equipment and personnel.
The command center is controlled via automatic doors to further
secure and protect the equipment. Finally,
the NC is located in a secure, monitored, class A building with
a minimum number of approved personnel allowed access to highly
sensitive areas and equipment. A detailed record of employee and
visitor entry is maintained at all times.
Connected
to Three Backbones
Our state-of-the-art Network Center located in Baltimore, Maryland
is OnNet Multiple Tier-1 with GlobalCenter (GC), Qwest Communications
and GTE through three separate bandwidth-on-demand connections which
enter Baltimore in the building. GC,
a Tier 1 provider whose 13,000-mile fiber optic network and Dense
Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology provide an enormous
460 gigabytes per second (Gbps) of capacity worldwide, has an Asynchronous
Transfer Mode (ATM) fiber node located just a few floors below the
NC. Qwest comes
into Baltimore with an OC-48. They also have an ATM fiber node floors
below the NC. Our Qwest connection enables us to offer additional
redundancy and better routes to Europe, Latin America and Asia.
With our carriers, our router has up to 150,000 possible routes
to send each packet of traffic. Genuity,
a division of GTE (now Verizon), is our third Tier One Internet
backbone. Genuity provides excellent network performance as a result
of their high-speed peering arrangements with other Tier One Internet
backbone providers. The GTE global network delivers customers directly
onto the Internet via a high-speed connection to its private, super-capacity
backbone, including 17,000 miles of fiber and OC192 capacity. It
is comprised of more than 800 U.S. local access points and approximately
1,500 international local access points in more than 150 countries.
Furthermore, because
of these unique connections, we do not need to link to the Internet
though an OC3 or T3 Telecom circuit. Instead, independent cables
run inside our building directly from the NC to all three carriers
points of presence. These lines can handle the bandwidth of a T3
or an OC3 with DWDM. Plus, they handle several times the bandwidth
of an OC3.
Other
Backbones
- Verio OC3 155Mbps
- Verio #2 Gigabit
1000Mbp
- Time Warner GB 1000Mbps
- Savvis OC3 155Mbps
- Cogent GB 1000Mbps
- ELI DS3 45Mbps
Network
Redundancy
Our NC uses intelligent end-user routing software called Border
Gateway Protocol (BGP), between Qwest, GC and GTE, who use the same
protocol. BGP identifies which path is the most efficient for each
data packet and then routes the packet to its destination on the
fastest path. This increases the speed at which web pages sent from
our NC arrive at their destination. Studies
have shown that the most common reason for downtime is circuit failure
on Tier 1 provider backbones, the major data highways. To guard
against this potential problem, we have three Tier-1 providers.
If one experiences problems, we can route traffic down the other
one. Furthermore, because we are OnNet with GlobalCenter, Qwest
and GTE, we share their digital distribution architecture, which
includes private peering network connections to major Internet carriers
such as MCI, Sprint, UUNET, EUNET, AT&T, AOL, Best, Erols, @Home,
IBM Advantis and others. These private peering arrangements allow
us to exchange packets of data with every major backbone carrier
in a one-to-one environment quickly and efficiently. In
addition, GC has high-speed links to eight public exchanges including
both MAE East and West and several NAPS. Through these public exchanges,
customers have the ability to reach their site, no matter from where
they are coming on the Internet.
Network
Reliability
Industry analysis reveals that 70% of downtime over ten hours with
any ISP is caused by telephone circuit failure. Since our NC is
in the same building as Global Center, Qwest and GTE, circuit failure
is virtually eliminated because there is no phone circuit between
us and our providers. Instead, there is a direct connection between
our Cisco 7500 routers and theirs. Our
providers also have peering connections with other major Tier 1
providers, which allows traffic to be switched to alternate backbones
should the need arise.
o
Raw Performance Equals
o Low Latency/High Throughput
Too often providers
operate their networks at three to four times responsible capacity.
As a result, their corresponding transfer times reach over 300ms.
Our NC's network daily average is 27% of its capacity, with midday
peak spikes reaching only 33% capacity.
Uninterruptible
Power System
To guard against local power failures, we are connected to two industrial-grade,
three phase Liebert UPS systems. These act as back-up batteries,
maintaining uninterrupted power in case of surges or power outages.
With these backup systems in place, we can keep our network up and
running indefinitely without relying on external power.
Industrial-Grade
Air Conditioners
The NC has two Liebert ten ton industrial air conditioners, which
condition our computer rooms and operations center. Our computer
room is kept at an optimal temperature of 65 degrees fahrenheit.
Our
Exclusive Web Servers
Our web servers are custom-built industrial machines designed for
a 24/7 web serving environment. All servers are equipped with dual
redundant 450-watt power supplies, hot swap Cheetah drives and force-filtered
cooling systems. In addition, our NC is equipped with an inventory
of identically configured, burned-in standby servers. All new servers
are configured with a minimum of:
- Intel Pentium
- 1.7GHz Servers
- Over 1 GB of RAM
- SSL Certificate
- Fast 7200RPM Hard Drives
- 256k OBC
- 100MHz FSB
- Backup hot swap drives
Force
Filtered Cooling
All of our web servers are equipped with a positive pressure filtered-air
system. Four large fans pull filtered air into each server's protective
case and the components within are cooled by fans which circulate
this purified air. This constant introduction of clean air into
the case creates a positive pressure environment ensuring dust and
particles remain outside of the server.
Hot
Swap Seagate Drives
The drives and drive bays of all our servers are constructed from
high-grade aluminum, and rest in shock mounted drive cages, which
adds to the durability of the hardware. Our drives proudly feature
the lowest failure rate in the industry.
Redundant
Hot Swap Power Supplies
Each server employs dual-redundant hot swap power supplies. If a
power supply were to fail, the server would continue running with
power from the alternate supply. Meanwhile, alarms would alert a
technician, who would quickly restore redundancy. In the meantime,
servers and client sites would experience no downtime.
Standby
Servers
We keep spare servers on-line of all CPU configurations. If a server
were to experience a hardware failure, we would turn a key, grab
the handle on the drive, pull it out, and insert it into an identical
standby CPU. We would then reboot the second machine and the server
would be up and running again in a matter of minutes.
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