Storm Internet's servers are based in a state-of the-art data centre in the
BlueSquare data centre in Maidenhead in the UK. The centre boasts one of the fastest connections to the Internet,
making your web site one of the fastest on the web!
In addition, the centre also prioritises on security and reliability. The
servers are monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by a team of skilled
engineers, ensuring the highest levels of performance. The unique architecture
of our hosting platform brings numerous benefits to our customers, including
speed, reliability and security.
1
BGP4 provides multiple redundant
Internet connections for speed and reliability.
6
Non Internet connected gigabit network provides
secure transit for data and ensures that the Internet facing network cannot
become congested.
2
At least two routers, running hot
standby routing protocol service any server to guarantee availability.
7
All data is backed up to our tape library on a daily basis.
3
Multiple firewalls protect servers from malicious traffic, viruses and trojans.
8
Replicated database servers are not
Internet accessible for maximum security.
4
Redundant layer 3-7 switches provide
load balancing, fail over functionality and allow us to take any server out of the cluster to maintain it without affecting your services.
9
Secondary web and file server cluster replicates data from the primary cluster providing service should our primary servers fail.
5
Primary server and file storage cluster.
All data is held on mirrored storage arrays.
We use predominantly Dell servers with FreeBSD or Windows 2008
operating systems, all of which have dual Intel Pentium Xeon processors,
dual 100Mbit Ethernet adapters and a minimum of 2 gigabytes of memory.
Storage is spread across multiple Ultra 160 SCSI hard disk drives
using Adaptec RAID controllers.
Every server on our network runs a RAID based disk redundancy
solution, should any of the primary disk drives fail, a secondary
disk drive can take over the work load with no loss of availability.
Each server also has a replication partner which can take
over its workload in the event of a problem or during
planned maintenance. In addition, data on our servers is backed
up to our Storagetek Timberwolf DLT tape library with tapes
being stored off site.
Data Centres
Home to hundreds of servers, the data centre is based at the BlueSquare data centre in Maidenhead.
Advanced security, fire suppression, climate control and power
protection equipment provides the ideal operating environment for
servers and network equipment.
We also make use of smaller facilities in Sheffield and Hexthorpe
as well as space at neutral collocation centres in London and Manchester.
These locations are primarily staging posts on the network and
interconnects with other ISPs.
Network
The network utilises fibre optic connections from BT,
Telewest, Kingston Communications & Fibrenet. Each building has
fibre presented from a minimum of two different telcos ensuring
that no single point of failure exists within our infrastructure.
Throughout our network, key equipment is duplicated, we
use technologies including BGP and hot standby routing protocol
to ensure the continuous availability of your web site even
in the event of the failure of one piece of equipment.
