For anything Web, Exodus knows its stuff. The company built a reputation hosting some of the brand names of the dot-com era but also supports many bricks-and-mortar e-business initiatives.
The solution Exodus proposes is strong in its suggested fundamental hosting infrastructure. The company's messaging in security best practices is the best among the responses we received. Our only problems with Exodus are higher up the protocol stack. The vendor's proposal regarding the feasibility of master/master database synchronization seems overly optimistic. Another key drawback is the price: At $9.1 million for a three-year gig, Exodus' proposal makes EDS look like the Hyundai of Web hosting.
Exodus makes a curious assertion early in its response, saying it does not provide application hosting as a standard offering. The company designs, deploys, manages and monitors all levels of the operating systems, including applications. It offers prepackaged managed hosting solutions using Sun and Compaq hardware that "can support any e-commerce application running on the aforementioned platforms." This apparent contradiction suggests that the vendor isn't an ASP (application service provider) but that a customer can operate as an ASP (as Romao wants to do) using Exodus infrastructure.
We are concerned that the raising of this issue signals some uncertainty within Exodus about its own business model. It does not instill us with confidence about the solvency of the financially challenged vendor or of the stability of the arrangement once Romao's applications are hosted in the Exodus environment. In all, this is a bad start.
We are also concerned about Exodus' simple assertion, without any discussion, of the viability of symmetrical master/master database updates. The terse response on this point does not address any of the issues raised by other vendors about the performance problems. Nor does it comfort us with anecdotal evidence about the viability of the strategy based on work that Exodus has done in other accounts. This aspect of the response raises a red flag for us.
Exodus offers direct customer access to internal and third-party monitoring tools via the Web-based myExodus.net portal. Far from being concerned about third-party SLA monitoring services, Exodus actually recommends that they be used. Interliant seconds this "open door" approach -- again, a reflection of the companies' collocation heritage and, perhaps, a reflection of the "shared responsibility" model embodied in most collocation approaches.
Architecturally, the proposal has its strengths. According to the response, sites would be provisioned at Exodus facilities in New York and Los Angeles. Exodus has a special team that would work with its third-party network providers to build a WAN that would meet all Romao Vineyards' needs. Inside Exodus data centers, the customer would be hosted in a dedicated, separate and highly secure lights-out environment backed up by redundant failover networks and server configurations.
A standout of the Exodus solution is the management and monitoring instrumentation built into most facets of the hosting infrastructure (likely in support of the vendor's earlier collocation-centric business).
Implementation of the base platform could be accomplished in 10 working days, according to the vendor. Implementation fees, excluding Oracle and Bluestone software licenses, would be about $38,500. Monthly recurring charges are estimated at $252,158.
Exodus Communications, (888) 2 EXODUS, (408) 878-7200; fax (408) 346-2207. www.exodus.net or sales@exodus.net
Interliant
Interliant's proposal reflects the company's experience as a collocation provider, Web host and ASP. Some of Interliant's responses to the RFI lack sufficient detail, however, to enable a fair judgment of its solution. We are also disturbed by the company's financial report, which stops just short of describing Interliant's situation since 2000. Like most publicly traded ASPs and collocation firms, Interliant has seen its fortunes dampened by the stock market. The company might have fared better by emulating the examples of other respondents, which speak to the companies' corporate strengths rather than articulating a financial picture with missing pieces. The financial report at the outset of Interliant's proposal casts a shadow over the proposal's credulity.
Interliant would put up Romao Vineyards' applications in its Houston and Vienna, Va., facilities, using a three-tier architecture comprising Dell Computer Corp. hardware for Web and application servers, and Sun Microsystems gear for the Oracle database. The company would protect this infrastructure with a managed firewall service, which would mean added charges for both service implementation and monthly service. Also included would be the price to deploy firewalls at Romao Vineyard hub sites to support a VPN between the hosting sites and hubs.
Interliant, like Exodus, offers an Oracle brochure response to the master/master database-synchronization requirement, with no further explanation of potential performance problems. And like e^deltacom and Exodus, the company expresses a great willingness to extend management and security monitoring consoles directly to the customer -- while providing no explanation regarding the security issues inherent in such a strategy.
An interesting feature of the Interliant proposal is that the company would not support the HP Bluestone Total-e-Server application. The vendor tells Romao that it could support his requirements only if he hires his own IT staff to support the applications, leading us to wonder whether Interliant's response could properly be classed as a managed hosting service at all.
For a redundant site solution in a 36-month contract, implementation fees would be about $48,900 while monthly fees would be $58,700. That comes to about $2.16 million over three years. Given the holes in the proposal, however, the Interliant solution could become the most costly grape in the bunch.
Interliant, (914) 640-9000. www.interliant.com
Jon William Toigo is a frequent contributor to Network Computing and has written 10 books, including The Essential Guide to ASPs, from Prentice Hall PTR. Send your comments on this article to him at jtoigo@intnet.net.
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