August 23, 1999
Frontier Communications
Frontier's solution included four Sun Microsystems E250 Web servers, two Sun E450 application servers, a Sun E4500 for a database server and a Network Appliance NFS server. We liked Frontier's approach to ensuring uptime--including dispersing the servers in two data centers across the country with F5 Networks' Big/ip controller for load-balancing and traffic-filtering. As for price, Frontier estimated monthly hosting fees at $13,000, plus a $7,400 startup fee. That includes 15 hours of professional services for design and implementation, plus four hours per month of support.
Frontier did a super job convincing us that it has the infrastructure, the skilled people and the processes in place to build a complete, high-performing outsourced hosting solution for Widgets R Us. The service provider bolstered its dependability claims by citing an impressive roster of existing clients, including Yahoo!, e-Toys, Playboy, USAToday and The Washington Post.
Additionally, Frontier owns and operates a fiber optic network of more than 20,000 route miles operating at speeds of up to OC-48 (2.5 Gbps). The company promised to assign every customer at least one technical account manager with a minimum of three years' experience in designing and maintaining sites as a sort of "personal Webmaster." Frontier claimed expertise in seven operating systems, a wide variety of network protocols, security solutions, management tools and databases. The company is clearly proud of its "bullet-proof class" data centers, featuring laser sniffers and lead-lined data tape vaults.
However, you'd need deep corporate pockets to foot Frontier's bill. And you'd have to take a lot of its promises on faith. The service provider fudged a little on the proposal by not providing specifics on an e-commerce solution. And sorely missing from Frontier's proposal was an SLA.
Frontier GlobalCenter, Frontier Communications, (408) 328-6000; fax (408) 328-4806. www.globalcenter.net
Cable & Wireless
Cable & Wireless recommended three Compaq ProLiant 1850r servers each with a 450-MHz Pentium II CPU, 128 MB of RAM and two 9.1-GB drives with RAID Level 1. The recommended software on each server was Windows NT 4.0, the commerce edition of Microsoft Site Server, Internet Information Server and Microsoft SQL Server.
For load-balancing, Cable & Wireless also recommended F5's Big/ip. Optional services included a managed firewall running Check Point Software Technologies software on Nokia hardware to prevent unauthorized access to business data and an IP-based VPN operating at 256 Kbps.
With 256-Kbps guaranteed bandwidth, around-the-clock monitoring, maintenance and optional support, plus five hours of technical support, the hardware and software package carried a price tag of $5,750 per month, plus a setup fee of $3,000.
Cable & Wireless may be the hosting company to watch. The company recently acquired MCI WorldCom's Internet business. And it is busy with an ambitious plan to build a new Internet network in the United States that includes two state-of-the art data centers.
As a Tier 1 Internet provider, Cable & Wireless claims a capacity of 2.4 GB per second and operating speeds of up to 622 MB per second. When a link averages 70 percent usage, Cable & Wireless implements a new link under its "no congestion" policy. Cable & Wireless' network management and service-management center are ISO-certified.
The proposal located the server at one data center (in Washington), rather than dispersing redundant servers across the country, which the other respondents suggested. Also, Cable & Wireless didn't give us a clear upgrade path or clearly indicate that it could give us advice on handling e-commerce. Finally, if you're squeamish about relying on a business partner in the midst of major changes, you might look elsewhere because this company is in the middle of a growth spurt.
Cable & Wireless Web Hosting Solutions, Cable & Wireless, (800) 955-5210; fax (703) 341-4616. www.cwusa.com
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