Internet Connectivity

We currently have 10MBps of bandwidth available to our servers, which are located just a few hops away from LINX - the single most important Internet exchange in the UK. We have an option to increase the bandwidth to 100MBps within three business days from our upstream provider, so we can meet the need for any additional bandwidth almost immediately. (NB. Provision of additional bandwidth is likely to be within one business day, but three days is the official period.) In the event of a problem, 2MBps of bandwidth is available via a separate physical connection. However, the primary link has an uptime of approximately 99.9%.

All servers have a dedicated 100MBps port on a switch for optimal performance (no hubs, etc to degrade performance). The switched network is protected by hardware firewalls. Every server runs RAID'ed disks (normally mirrored) for improved fault tolerance, and server data is backed up on a daily basis. As part of the security umbrella, software patches are tested and applied as soon as they are made available from the respective software vendors.

Power is delivered to all equipment via UPS. This ensures a clean power supply (no surges/spikes) and backup power in the event of a mains outage. UPS uptime is approximately 1 hour.