New Space?

[adb22791]

I was browsing around on the Steadfast site (since watching the kernel make modules got very boring ;) ) and noticed a little blurb on the colo page about new space. Is this new space in 350 E Cermak, or have you guys found another datacenter in Chicago?

Or is it a secret until June 1st. :D


Alex

[Karl]

I was browsing around on the Steadfast site (since watching the kernel make modules got very boring ;) ) and noticed a little blurb on the colo page about new space. Is this new space in 350 E Cermak, or have you guys found another datacenter in Chicago?

Or is it a secret until June 1st. :D


Alex

We have no immediate plans to get a location outside of 350 E Cermak. We already have our core network and 24/7 staff there, so staying in the same building makes the most sense for us.

[adb22791]

Sounds good, I think 350 E Cermak has an excellent mix of bandwidth providers in it, and I'm happy with the quality of service (constant power, etc) that I have enjoyed since I first got a server here.

Any chance of snapping a few pictures for us?


Alex

[Ray]

What kind of pictures are you looking for exactly?

We have some pictures of our current data center space that were taken for last HostingCon. We'll discuss and consider posting something. For now, the picture on the front of our site is a picture taken inside of our data center. The pictures on the data center page are as well.

[adb22791]

Yeah, I saw those. Generally any DC pic is a good pic, since us people who don't get to go into a datacenter every morning find this rather exciting. ;)

Thanks!
Alex

[Ray]

It never gets boring, even for those of us doing this every day.

I'll see what I can do about getting a few pics put up in reasonable format. Now, I just gotta dig through and find where I saved them. ;)

[adb22791]

Sounds great! :)


Alex

[ManagerJosh]

Heh, pretty soon people would be asking for a Steadfast Employee Group photo :D

[adb22791]

Heh, pretty soon people would be asking for a Steadfast Employee Group photo :D

Actually I stumbled across one of you guys on Facebook the other day. Theres a "WebHostingTalk" group, maybe you should make a Steadfast group? :D


Alex

[ManagerJosh]

I hope you didn't come across me in Facebook....o wait, you might have already :-X

[Henrik]

I agree, pics please ;)

[Ray]

I'll get there. Probably this weekend.

[ManagerJosh]

Let the bidding war begin for Official, Signed and Autographed, Steadfast Mug Shots!

Do I hear $1.00? :D

[Ray]

Oohh.. now there's a good way to bring in some quick cash. ;)

[Ray]

Okay, while I've not done much with too many of the pics, here's one to hold you all over for a couple days. And yeah, it is really low res right now. We'll get some more up later. This is just a teaser really.

http://steadfast.net/photos/row2-end.jpg

[Senad]

This is just a teaser really.

http://steadfast.net/photos/row2-end.jpg

*Whistles* Now that's a rack :D.

[Ray]

*Whistles* Now that's a rack :D.

Is that what that is?

[Senad]

Is that what that is?

So they don't call them Server Racks anymore just cabinets :D?

[Ray]

So they don't call them Server Racks anymore just cabinets :D?

It's hard to say. Some people consider 2 post racks "racks" and 4 post racks "cabinets." I personally would lean more toward 4 post racks without walls or doors as "racks" and "cabinets" when they have the sides and doors.

So yeah, I guess it is a rack. :)

[adb22791]

It's not a cabinet, it doesn't have any doors! :confused:

But it sure is one pretty rack. :banana:



Alex

[ManagerJosh]

Wow and here I thought the Steadfast Datacenter room was a dark place...sorta like those places in the spy movies where you see everyone huddled in those rooms filled with computers :)

[Henrik]

Okay, while I've not done much with too many of the pics, here's one to hold you all over for a couple days. And yeah, it is really low res right now. We'll get some more up later. This is just a teaser really.



That floor needs wiping :mad: :D

[Senad]

Sorry the hampsters power the generators made a mess last night :P.

[ManagerJosh]

I thought I saw a pool of drool in that picture...

[Ray]

That floor needs wiping :mad: :D

All of the pictures I have are at least 9 months old. Things have changed a bit. Things are a lot cleaner right now. Maybe someday we'll take newer pictures, though it doesn't look a lot different right now.

[Senad]

All of the pictures I have are at least 9 months old. Things have changed a bit. Things are a lot cleaner right now. Maybe someday we'll take newer pictures, though it doesn't look a lot different right now.

Wait so we upgraded the hamsters to ferrets then :D?

[GeorgeA]

Show us the dark side Ray :D !

[Henrik]

All of the pictures I have are at least 9 months old. Things have changed a bit. Things are a lot cleaner right now. Maybe someday we'll take newer pictures, though it doesn't look a lot different right now.

I was serious indeed ;)
Though, what kind of cooling is there for these blades? Looks like they can generate quite a lot of heat.

[Kevin]

Wow and here I thought the Steadfast Datacenter room was a dark place...sorta like those places in the spy movies where you see everyone huddled in those rooms filled with computers :)

This seems to be what everyone pictures when they think of data centers. Perhaps this is a side effect of the fact that Equinix is a very dark place. We did still have regular lights in our cages, though. It would be really annoying to work in low lighting. Lost screws might be gone for good. :P

[Henrik]

So there is some truth to the saying "got a screw loose?"?! ;) :P

[Ray]

I was serious indeed ;)
Though, what kind of cooling is there for these blades? Looks like they can generate quite a lot of heat.

Yeah. It's definitely something we pay attention to.

The blades are not truly blades. They are all just rackmount servers. They do put out a bit of heat, but there's plenty of cooling for all. :)

[ManagerJosh]

Yeah. It's definitely something we pay attention to.

The blades are not truly blades. They are all just rackmount servers. They do put out a bit of hit, but there's plenty of cooling for all. :)

Time to get Karl to dump all those old P4 units and start putting in all Core 2 Duo systems :D

This seems to be what everyone pictures when they think of data centers. Perhaps this is a side effect of the fact that Equinix is a very dark place. We did still have regular lights in our cages, though. It would be really annoying to work in low lighting. Lost screws might be gone for good. :P

Well it does help keep the electricity bill down... a little bit :P :rolleyes:

[Henrik]

Yeah. It's definitely something we pay attention to.

The blades are not truly blades. They are all just rackmount servers. They do put out a bit of heat, but there's plenty of cooling for all. :)

How much is your electric bill for cooling (of the room your servers are in)? Is it baked into the monthly electric-bill over there?

[Kevin]

Time to get Karl to dump all those old P4 units and start putting in all Core 2 Duo systems :D

Those Core 2 Duos are very popular. Our OLD P4 boxes don't use that much power though. We have the racks full of old servers stacked a lot higher than most of the newer cabinets. It's boxes like the Dual Xeon 5050 that we offered for a while that really suck down power.

[ManagerJosh]

I thought Core 2 Duo systems ran a LOT cooler than these old P4s.

[Kevin]

I thought Core 2 Duo systems ran a LOT cooler than these old P4s.

I believe the P4s do run quite a bit hotter. I thought you were referring to power usage, which is what really ends up limiting us in the end, and for our older systems is not a significant problem. According to electrical code, we can put 16 amps of power on a 20 amp circuit and our power density is laid out for two of these circuits per cabinet, so more efficient servers means more servers per cabinet, which we certainly like.

[ManagerJosh]

Well in terms of both I suppose.

Cooler running CPUs means costs for cooling (like Air Conditioning) would be lowered and consumption of power to cool systems down would also be lower would in the long run translate as more servers per rack.

More efficent CPUs would mean also mean more space for additional servers per rack:)


That's assuming I have a good picture of the entire Steadfast Operations :)

[adb22791]

Those Core 2 Duos are very popular. Our OLD P4 boxes don't use that much power though. We have the racks full of old servers stacked a lot higher than most of the newer cabinets. It's boxes like the Dual Xeon 5050 that we offered for a while that really suck down power.

Yeah, those Dempsey's really do suck in power. That's probably why they're about $200 a pop now. :eek: The Woodcrests are very nice though :dreaming: <-- no dreaming?! :P


Alex

[GeorgeA]

Also , the performance/watt issue is one of the pretty important metrics in hosting from what I heard ( from hardware sites :P ). I am wondering how big the bill for electricity is each month, (*hint*,*hint* :D ).

[Ray]

Performance/watt is definitely very important for us. It's only been recently that hardware vendors started paying attention to this sort of thing, but it's always been something we've had to be concerned with. You certainly can't fill a 40 amp, 42U rack with 42 Dual Opteron 2212s, but we try to balance out space with power usage. We now use 2U chasses standard for Dual Xeons and Dual Opterons, etc. It makes more sense, because you then have more space for drives, and more efficient system cooling. Even with the 2Us, we don't use up all 42U in a typical rack.

The electric bill is quite high, but I don't feel comfortable giving any specific numbers right now.

[GeorgeA]

Thanks for the briefing :P. Well,talking is nice,but we want photos :P .
*Feels like a child begging for candy.*

[Ray]

And photos you shall receive...


just not yet. Over the weekend I'll get a few more up here.

[GeorgeA]

Christmas comes early this year... it has been said that Santa Ray will gift us some photos on the weekend. Don't disappoint the children now Ray ! :D

[Henrik]

Christmas comes early this year... it has been said that Santa Ray will gift us some photos on the weekend. Don't disappoint the children now Ray ! :D

hahaha I never thought an ISP-forum could be this entertaining ;) :D

[Ray]

hahaha I never thought an ISP-forum could be this entertaining ;) :D
Oh, this is nothing yet. We're trying not to show off our insanity too badly here. :) You know, we should keep it on a somewhat professional level.

[Henrik]

Less chatter more pictures! :mad: :D

[ManagerJosh]

A picture is worth a thousands words, Henrik :)

[Henrik]

A picture is worth a thousands words, Henrik :)

I'm honoured we agree ;)

[GeorgeA]

From the website: ( http://steadfast.net/corporate/datacenter.php ):
http://steadfast.net/images/servers_row1.jpg

http://steadfast.net/images/power_outlets.jpg
and:
http://steadfast.net/shared/background.home.jpg (http://steadfast.net/)

[Henrik]

The hungry wolves wants more! :P

[Karl]

All the pictures on the site were taken by me, aren't I a marvelous photographer... :-)

Just to give you an idea on electrical costs, we have a 5 digit electric bill.

[GeorgeA]

Well Karl, as you're such a marvelous photographer, how would you like to show us some more pictures taken by you ? :P

[adb22791]

Well Karl, as you're such a marvelous photographer, how would you like to show us some more pictures taken by you ? :P

And can you sign them please? I'd like to frame some for my walls. :cool:


Alex

[Henrik]

The photos on the Steadfast pages do look professional - good job! :)

[ManagerJosh]

The photos on the Steadfast pages do look professional - good job! :)
It's all because of Kevin's major uberpwnage coding skills :D

[Kevin]

Haha, I can assure you that my coding skills do not make photos any better, and I can also assure you that I suck at taking photos. :)

[ManagerJosh]

Guess that makes me the only guy who love to take photos O_o

[Tommy]

It would be nice to see some more pics of your DC and the staffs at Steadfast! :)

[Henrik]

All your staffs are belong to us :p

[adb22791]

I hate to bump an old thread, but as we're getting closer to the new space opening, do you have any pictures for us? :D You guys should take a few days off, and see what it's like for the folks at home. We're all waiting with baited breath to see what new surprises are in store for us.


Alex

[Henrik]

Yes, PICS please ;)

[Karl]

As an update, our cabinets are in, initial power is built out and ladder rack is up. We're almost set. Also, we bought a new camera here, so we should be able to get some good pictures this time around. I'll try to have those up Monday or Tuesday.

[Ray]

Karl posted pictures of the new data center in the following thread for those that didn't see it:

http://steadfast.net/forum/showthread.php?t=431

I am impressed with it, and I hope to see it soon, as I have not yet.

[Henrik]

Yes, that place is like a cathedral - or maybe should I say the catacombs of Paris?! (hence there are no windows :cool1:)