Data Centers In Kansas City

[TheNetway]

Hello. I was wondering if anyone knows a Data Center provider in the Kansas City Metropolitan area BESIDES the Sprint Internet Center in Lee's Summit, Missouri.....

[Ross]

www.wholesaleinternet.com

[TheNetway]

anything reasonable?

[Ross]

Yea,

wholesaleinternet is very reasonable. If your looking for a more top of the line switch&data has a DC in KC. You might want to check out St. Louis, we have a number of great DC's.

[TheNetway]

Yea, STL is full of places!

[jlschwab]

I have a machine that's hosted thro a third party, but the third party, uses wholesaleinternet's datacenter, never had a problem, excellent.

[alex042]

One thing to keep in mind if you use wholesale internet is that, last time I checked, they don't staff their datacenter 24/7 so if you're remote reboot doesn't work, you may be waiting a while to get support.

[omaha.stylee]

I've never had a problem with a remote reboot switch not working, unless it was something that I caused myself.

[GZGraphix]

I co-lo at Blue Virtual. they are located right in down town KCMO, nice and close for me. Solid Network. No problems.

real competitive pricing too.

www.bluevirtual.com

-Aaron

[omaha.stylee]

there is also

- webhostone.com
- hostmetro.net

[Chad McCan]

Yeah, webhostone.com is actually a client inside of Switch and Data. They have their own space in there they sell at resonable prices. Good luck getting a hold of anyone, we tried for a long time and were never successful. If you do, tell him to get a hold of me :)

[omaha.stylee]

hrm, so you've yet to say anything nice about anybody. it's kind of funny how are experiences are the exact opposite, I can get ahold of "him" just about any time I want. maybe he didn't want to talk to you?

[Chad McCan]

I am just posting my experiences. Did you not read where I said his prices are resonable?

It's obvious you have a personal issue with me, feel free to call and discuss it anytime. I would love to clear the air, instead of bickering on someone else's forum.

[omaha.stylee]

no peresonal issue here .....


looking for any part-time help? :p:

[xtremebandwidth]

Level3 has a datacenter at 1101 Main Kansas City, MO 64105

[omaha.stylee]

that doesn't have any IP gear.

c'mon! you sell that stuff, you should know that!

[xtremebandwidth]

I realized that after I posted.

[jordansmith]

We are colocated with Xero 3 Communications in KC, MO. They are great.. we also buy bandwidth from them to broadcast off the roof to clients around the KC Metro. They do Colo, Dedicated, and IP transit..

Jordan

Propelwireless.com

[TheNetway]

What's there website? Where are they located?

[oanielsen]

I would like to know that too! I visited wholesaleinternet last week. They are building on and re-arranging a lot of stuff. I will probably go take a look at them again once they have done the re-arrange of their DC, but I would like to know of other Colo options here in KC, so I have something to compare. The biggest concern I had with wholesaleinternet is no generator backup. They are in a fairly unique building downtown because they reside on dual power grids, but with my luck, both grids would crap out all at one time.

[alex042]

wholesaleinternet is rearranging again or still? They were doing something like that a year or so ago when I was there also. I didn't realize they didn't have a backup generator there, but I believe they have a UPS. Maybe the plan is to use that as a temporary backup?

One of the things that bothered me at the time was that they didn't have someone there 24/7. I guess that would be fine for non-critical servers. But I didn't particularly like the idea of me personally having to drive down there at 4am because of a server problem that could easily be remedied in person. And I didn't like the idea of everyone who coloed there having access to my server with noone watching them. Maybe they've changed things since then? They had some potential with what they have there, but weren't there at the time I was checking them out.

I know with all the fiber around KC that there has to be other options.

[oanielsen]

I know with all the fiber around KC that there has to be other options.

Yeah, that's what I was hoping to find out. I would like to visit and see what other options are here. I currently have a couple of servers at EV1, and the service has been great, but I would like to expand my offerings to clients. I would much rather have a place locally that I can colo some boxes at, and at least have a personal relationship with the company, without sacrificing network stability and redundancy.

[TheNetway]

They are doing rearrangements again I think. Also, The Bryant Building Itself has a backup generater powering the entire building if the power went out. I'm not sure how long the backup would last though, I would assume a while.

You can look at there site at http://www.bryantbuilding.com

[oanielsen]

That makes me feel a little better, but I am wondering why they did not tell me that when I was down there? and I also wonder if all the suites and floors are covered by the Backup generators.

[WII-Aaron]

That makes me feel a little better, but I am wondering why they did not tell me that when I was down there? and I also wonder if all the suites and floors are covered by the Backup generators.

James probably didn't mention it because it's not true. One of our competitors located in the same building tells all thier customers that. The customers that want to see the generator are taken downstairs and shown either MCI's generator or the one belonging to Williams.

The Building is in the process of redoing its ENTIRE electrical system and will have a building wide generator (and a backup) in place in a little bit that will cover everyone. Currently the power situation in the building is horrible unless you pull your own. (like we do)

We are currently in negotiations to purchase excess generator capacity from a big telecom in the building and hope to have that deal inked within the next month.

Aaron

[WII-Aaron]

wholesaleinternet is rearranging again or still? They were doing something like that a year or so ago when I was there also. I didn't realize they didn't have a backup generator there, but I believe they have a UPS. Maybe the plan is to use that as a temporary backup?

One of the things that bothered me at the time was that they didn't have someone there 24/7. I guess that would be fine for non-critical servers. But I didn't particularly like the idea of me personally having to drive down there at 4am because of a server problem that could easily be remedied in person. And I didn't like the idea of everyone who coloed there having access to my server with noone watching them. Maybe they've changed things since then? They had some potential with what they have there, but weren't there at the time I was checking them out.

I know with all the fiber around KC that there has to be other options.

It's again... Not still... Although sometimes I wonder that myself. :rofl:

We still do not staff the DC 24/7. I have to sleep and to be honest, I haven't found a single person with a decent skill set that I would trust to put there grubby little hands on my network. While there are more people working with us these days, never when I'm not there.

As for access. Things have changed. If you were coloing a single box, you would need to call us at 4am. (We do answer) We don't give everyone access anymore. There are 2 customers that have unescorted access to the small room and only 1 to the larger room. We will drive down at 4am to reboot a down server. :( Customers will have unescorted access to the private suites and cages but that is controlled through the doors on 10 and not through the current DC areas on the 9th floor. (We added 13,000 sq. ft. last month)

As for other colo companies in the area here are some I know of. I've listed ONLY the ones I know of that own or operate thier own facilities and not those who are colo'd with someone else. They are listed in no particular order and without my personal opinions on them. I, of course, endorse none of them . :D Footnotes at the bottom. This list is by no means all inclusive, I'm sure.

NetStandard
Arsalon *
HostMetro **
Switch and Data
GSI
NuVox
KCNAP/CTC
ASCI ***
MyCart ****
WebOne/PlanetKC
KCNet
Lighthouse

I left out a big one that's brand new at about 150th and I-35. They are affiliated with a bank and I can't remember who they are right now. Of course it will come to me as soon as I submit this....

Aaron


* Arsalon claims to own thier facility but I've been told it actually belongs to someone else. I personally have no idea so I listed them based on thier claims.

** HostMetro maintains space on the 14th floor of our building but I have been told that they actually colo all thier stuff with KCNAP/CTC. Ken would know better then I since he was a customer for a short time.

*** ASCI might not be right. They are on the 11th floor of the bryant building. The only thing I know about them for sure, name included, is that thier DC is very warm.

**** MyCart doesn't offer colo themselves but the owner has a colo facility at 135th and Metcalf. I'm not sure what name it's under.

[TheNetway]

Yeah Aaron man it was horrible. Back in November, they didn't collocate at the NAP, or at least to my knowledge, but maybe now they do. I personally wouldn't recommend anyone doing business with HostMetro or partners of this company, as they do horrible business. To sum down that list, the only really good company within the Bryant Building is Wholesale Internet (who I plan on buying space from soon). Note that I said the only good company within the "Bryant Building" which is excluding datacenters not in this building (such as NetStandards and Switch and Data customers) Also, I did not know that the generators were only for MCI or whatever, as their website says it has it, assuming it powers the entire building.

Thanks!

[alex042]

We still do not staff the DC 24/7. I have to sleep and to be honest, I haven't found a single person with a decent skill set that I would trust to put there grubby little hands on my network. While there are more people working with us these days, never when I'm not there.

As for access. Things have changed. If you were coloing a single box, you would need to call us at 4am. (We do answer) We don't give everyone access anymore. There are 2 customers that have unescorted access to the small room and only 1 to the larger room. We will drive down at 4am to reboot a down server. Customers will have unescorted access to the private suites and cages but that is controlled through the doors on 10 and not through the current DC areas on the 9th floor. (We added 13,000 sq. ft. last month)
That didn't take long to get a response. Aaron's watching me like a hawk. :bonkhead:

Maybe you and your partner could work out a 1st/2nd shift kind of arrangement? That would at least cover 90% of business hours probably. If it was staffed most of the time, noone would have to drive anywhere and it could save 30+ minutes of downtime. Sometimes you just have to have more confidence in an employee. ;) Afterall, if they have problems, they can always call you, but the point is that there are eyes and hands right there and you would walk them through something.

I'm curious as to how the larger room, where the new racks (at the time) were going to go, and private suites turned out. Did they all get finished?

[WII-Aaron]

Yeah Aaron man it was horrible. Back in November, they didn't collocate at the NAP, or at least to my knowledge, but maybe now they do. I personally wouldn't recommend anyone doing business with HostMetro or partners of this company, as they do horrible business. To sum down that list, the only really good company within the Bryant Building is Wholesale Internet (who I plan on buying space from soon). Note that I said the only good company within the "Bryant Building" which is excluding datacenters not in this building (such as NetStandards and Switch and Data customers) Also, I did not know that the generators were only for MCI or whatever, as their website says it has it, assuming it powers the entire building.

Thanks!

You're right. The website for the building says it has a generator backup for building power. Trust me. The building owns no generators. Anything that's there is owned by the companies they belong to.

The building website is hosted by, and as far as I know, created by the company I mentioned above as the one telling thier customers the building has generators.

Aaron

[WII-Aaron]

That didn't take long to get a response. Aaron's watching me like a hawk. :bonkhead:

Maybe you and your partner could work out a 1st/2nd shift kind of arrangement? That would at least cover 90% of business hours probably. If it was staffed most of the time, noone would have to drive anywhere and it could save 30+ minutes of downtime. Sometimes you just have to have more confidence in an employee. ;) Afterall, if they have problems, they can always call you, but the point is that there are eyes and hands right there and you would walk them through something.

I'm curious as to how the larger room, where the new racks (at the time) were going to go, and private suites turned out. Did they all get finished?

It's funny. I really don't visit this forum very often. Just happened to late last night. so no... :) I'm not stalking anybody.

We've discussed different shifts. Even tried it for a little bit. The issue was that if it involved anything other then pushing a power button James would have to call me. Since we really don't get a ton of reboot requests anyway (the customers who seem to need it all the time, or want it done instantly are given reboot ports) what ended up happening is that I would leave and then spend the next 8 hours on the phone with James. :eek2:

Anyway, we've had very few complaints about response times, even in the middle of the night.

As for the larger room and the suites. The suites on the 9th floor are about 1/2 done. They've been gutted and the ceilings done. We still need to do the floors and the ladder racks as well as install the individual enviromental systems in each room. (scalable from 2 to 25 tons per room) We're looking at having the first one habitable in 30-60 days.

The larger room is cage space right now. Our larger customers are currently located there either perminately or while we get thier suite ready.

I always joke about why we give tours in the first place when the place will be completely different next month.

We are deffinately not the only game in town. There are some nice facilities. We serve a certain market segment and do it pretty well. I would be willing to put good money down that we are the fastest growing Colo facility in town and I know we are the most flexable.

I did provide a list of other facilities above and would invite everyone to check them all out. In the end it's all about the one that can fill your needs at a price you can afford.

Aaron

[TheNetway]

Visited the Wholesale Internet datacenter yesterday. They have a very nice facility here in Kansas City. It's like a mini Switch and Data except smaller. I should be a customer of Wholesale Internet by the time they get there UPS System next month. (In other words, we'll be there by mid- May :D) so we look forward to that.

One thing I've noticed about Wholesale Internet is that they treat you like they know you personally (freely talking), which adds to there touch to their customers, and in my view a good sales point.

Anyways, just my first impressions on Wholesale Internet after visiting their facility.

[oanielsen]

Yep, I finally had set up my first server with them last week. They had it built and up a couple days after my order. They already had the proper kernal and latest Cpanel on the box, which was nice to see. I did have an issue with SMART seeing errors on the 200GB drive, but Aaron got it fixed quick (SMART compatiblity problem with newer drives). It is nice having someone know you by name when you call in. They are only a few blocks from where my office is during the day, so even though I will probably never need to go there, it is nice to know that I can! So far so good!

Oliver

[TheNetway]

Yeah, no real reason to go unless you are doing some major investing in a service, such as buying a rack or buying a lot of space, but it's still always nice to see what Kansas City has.

[oanielsen]

buying a rack or buying a lot of space

I did like seeing those new rooms they had cleared on the east end of the floor. Ahh the wheels started spinning in my head! Maybe someday! :)

[omaha.stylee]

you can't really compare switch and data and wholesale internet or any other company in the bryant building.

they provide TOTALLY different service.

a much better comparasion would be webhostone and wholesaleinternet.

I'm sure with Bryan @ webhostone you'd have exactly the same sort of personal relationship with your provider. you'll pay a bit more for transit there though. some people would say it's a nicer mix of providers and has better redundancy, but that's all a matter of opinion ....

cheers

[TheNetway]

True, he may, but I was just giving my opinion of Wholesale Internet not comparing with the customer relations with any other provider as I've not had any experience with any other. I wasn't saying he didn't as I've never dealt or talked to him before.

[TheNetway]

I did like seeing those new rooms they had cleared on the east end of the floor. Ahh the wheels started spinning in my head! Maybe someday! :)

lol yeah, James just opened the door and let me have a peek. He said that they arn't really trying to lease off the rooms just yet. I forget the reason, but it has something to do with the management team of the Bryant Building.

[WII-Aaron]

Thanks Kenneth,

I'm glad you had the chance to come down and check the place out. I'm sorry I couldn't be there.

The deal with the suites is more a case of logistics. the piping for the heat pumps isn't in yet, neither is the floor and we're considering doing more with the walls. We're not trying to leae them yet simply because they're not ready.

Omaha is right. While we provide the same services as S&D we provide so much more that you really can't compare us. However, us to webhostone is not a good comparison either. While I know Bryan and he is a good guy and provides good service, he is a S&D customer. He does not control his own enviromentals or power and is at the mercy of the facility he colo's with. His primary business is shared hosting while ours is Colocation and Dedicated servers. We also have a much larger list of providers to choose from then any other provider in Kansas city. (ask any other facility if they can provide you with Yipes, or Abovenet bandwidth.)

Aaron

:dchick2:

[omaha.stylee]

I'm going to have to tell you that you're wrong about the customer base at webhostone.

being able to provide yipes and abovenet is nothing to be proud of. :)

and I'm not sure you're statement about having access to more providers than any other provider in KC. because I'm pretty sure the majority of the companies based out of KC are either in Bryant or S&D. and there's conduit ran between the two buildings ....


I dunno though.

[WII-Aaron]

I'm going to have to tell you that you're wrong about the customer base at webhostone.

being able to provide yipes and abovenet is nothing to be proud of. :)

and I'm not sure you're statement about having access to more providers than any other provider in KC. because I'm pretty sure the majority of the companies based out of KC are either in Bryant or S&D. and there's conduit ran between the two buildings ....


I dunno though.

I could very well be wrong about WebHostOne's customer base. I ran into Brian on the street a couple months ago and said "Hi" but before that it was probably 6 months since I'd made it over to S&D. I really don't pay much attention to what everyone else here in the city is doing these days.

I used Yipes and Abovenet as an example since we are the only place in town you can get direct connections to them. We can offer direct connectivity to over 50 providers from our facility. Our next closest competitor claims 17 (although there's a question about that).

I have you to thank. You made a statement that was absolutely true in a previous post. That there was no real difference between any provider in KC. You were right. What makes us any different then any other provider in town? We can debate all day long about personal service, facilities, etc etc but in the end, as of your post, we all pretty much had the same infrastructure and providers. It came down to price and who you liked more. (Do you want to spend 10 minutes in a room alone with James or Larry? :love: ) So we got to work. The bandwidth providers are just the first step so Thanks again, for some reason your statement woke me up.

Aaron

[TheNetway]

Along with pricing, it also deals with the management of a company, knowing what they are doing and customer support. :D

[TheNetway]

Heya,

Went to the GSI (Greensoft Solutions) datacenter the other day, and I must say it's probably the best datacenter in Kansas City for colocation. I also went to NetStandard a week before, which actually lies about their transit providers, and charges $275 per mbit for just Cogent and Williams, while they advirtise ATT, Sprint, Cogent and Williams. What a scam! But they do have a nice place, but not as nice as GSI unfortunately.

Anyways, GSI also hosts some of Burger Kings websites too, which I found interesting when they had told me, and they have connectivity to Sprint, Williams, Level 3, Global Crossing and Cogent (which in KC, Cogent BW is very good). The building they are in is a suite style building where they rent / lease floors, so within this building, they have there corporate offices and their own personal datacenter hosted on a floor, then they have the Enterprise datacenter and NOC hosted on it's own floor, and then they have there Powerhouse hosted on it's own floor, which I think is cool.

I had also asked them if they get any business from their website, and they said that they don't use it as much as they need to, as it is outdated. They are putting a new updated website online soon but for now their website is http://gsi-kc.com

I'd look into this place if you're looking for colo in KC.

[hostaxe]

There is a new dc at Kansas: kionic.com . Do anyone know more details or can pay a visit to their company ?

[TheNetway]

It looks nice based off the pictures. They are in Witchita, and not sure if anyone on the forum lives there lol.

[TeraPipe]

I visited Netstandard's datacenter a while ago and thought it was very nice. It was a little more then I wanted to spend so after some research I went with Wholesaleinternet.

ive never seen GSI's dc. From reading your other posts I see that you get around to all the facilities in kc. How would you compare GSI to Wholesaleinternet's new facility in mid town? I got a tour of it last week and Ive never seen anything like it. What do you think?

Heya,

Went to the GSI (Greensoft Solutions) datacenter the other day, and I must say it's probably the best datacenter in Kansas City for colocation. I also went to NetStandard a week before, which actually lies about their transit providers, and charges $275 per mbit for just Cogent and Williams, while they advirtise ATT, Sprint, Cogent and Williams. What a scam! But they do have a nice place, but not as nice as GSI unfortunately.

Anyways, GSI also hosts some of Burger Kings websites too, which I found interesting when they had told me, and they have connectivity to Sprint, Williams, Level 3, Global Crossing and Cogent (which in KC, Cogent BW is very good). The building they are in is a suite style building where they rent / lease floors, so within this building, they have there corporate offices and their own personal datacenter hosted on a floor, then they have the Enterprise datacenter and NOC hosted on it's own floor, and then they have there Powerhouse hosted on it's own floor, which I think is cool.

I had also asked them if they get any business from their website, and they said that they don't use it as much as they need to, as it is outdated. They are putting a new updated website online soon but for now their website is http://gsi-kc.com

I'd look into this place if you're looking for colo in KC.

[TheNetway]

Erm, I am good friends with James and what not, but in all honesty, it just doesn't compare. GSI is probably the best datacenter in the KC area. The only DC I have not been to, and really don't want to because their prices are outragous is Arsalon. Netstandard is OK, but there prices are also outragous, and they claim to use providers that they really don't use. Good facility, the the math just doesn't add up with their pricing. DSI offers the most uplink providers in the Kansas City area at great prices. And a close friend of mine actually moved from Switch and Data to GSI, and he said it was such a releif, and has yet to experience any downtime. There was a storm a while back, (not this last one), and GSI's power supply from the utilities company ( i think it's kcpl) went out, for about 45 minutes, and 'not a single packet was lost'. As well they split there bandwidth coming in from different sides of the building (no single point of failure) to maximize redundancy.

Wholesale Internet's new facility's environment isn't the best, but inside it's a major upgrade from the Bryant Building facility they have. I will say that in the future, I think that power will become a problem for them if it were to ever fail, as it only has diesel generators, compared to GSI's UPS systems, plus there batteries, and there own dedicated Catapiller backup diesel generator. I will also say that the facility they aquired is nice as well, as it was going to be used as a teleco datacenter by one of the major phone companies... I think it was Williams maybe.. dunno. Right now the place is basically empty, I saw some cabinets and racks but nothing organized or connected when I went although they are offering colo out of the building I believe.

Overall, GSI offers quality services (24/7 Staffed datacenter and support) and quality facilities (total of 3 in the KC area) at very reasonable pricing with many uplinks (Cogent / Verio, WilTel, Level 3, Sprint, and Global Crossing). Wholesale Internet offers great pricing as well, and although it's not staffed 24/7 James / Aaron will get up at 3am in the morning to reboot a server, which shows dedication. They have connectivity to Global Crossing and Level 3.

Also, when I got the tour of the new place, I will say that it wasn't the best times, as after I left GSI, I called James to see if I can get a tour while I am down in the city, and he said wait 30 minutes (because it's about a 20-25 minute drive), so I went to go get something to eat. When I went to the datacenter, still no one was there, and then he called and said he should be here in a hour, so I was like WTF, but came 30 minutes after that hour. Internally, this did piss me off, as he should of gave me the time that he would be available instead of letting me wait an hour and 30 minutes in front of their place, and because I had a web design customer that I was also dealing with, it made it kinda hard to stay that long, but I did...