SurfTechnology

  
 

Extensive research and strategic planning resulted in a distinctive architecture of our hosting platform bringing huge benefits to our customers in terms of speed, reliability and security amongst various others.

 

 

Network Architecture

 

1

BGP4 provides multiple redundant Internet connections for speed and reliability.
   
2

At least two routers, running hot standby routing protocol service to any server to guarantee availability.
   
3

Multiple firewalls protect servers from malicious traffic, viruses and trojans.

   
4

Redundant layer 3-7 switches provide load balancing, fail over functionality and allow the engineers to take any server out of the cluster to maintain it without affecting your services.
   
5

Primary server and file storage cluster. All data is held on mirrored storage arrays.

   
6

Non Internet connected gigabit network provides secure transit for data and ensures that the Internet facing network cannot become congested.
   
7

All data is backed up to the tape library on a daily basis.

   
8

Replicated database servers are not Internet accessible for maximum security.
   
9

Secondary web and file server cluster replicates data from the primary cluster providing service should the primary servers fail.

 

For the most part Dell servers with FreeBSD or Windows 2003 operating systems are used, 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 the 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 the servers is backed up to the Storagetek Timberwolf DLT tape library with tapes being stored off site.

 

Data Centres

Data centres are operated in various cites including London, Manchester and Leeds. Each facility incorporates advanced security, fire suppression, climate-control and power protection equipment to provide the ideal operating environment for servers and network equipment. The data centres are home to tens of thousands of servers and some of the worlds biggest web sites.

 

Network

We control a powerful tier 1 network with over 100 points of presence (PoPs). Based on proven technologies including ATM and MPLS, the network utilises high capacity optical fibre and microwave links.

London centre occupies three locations in London Docklands, which provide our connection to other Internet Service Providers (ISPs) via the London Internet Exchange (LINX) or other Internet transit providers in Europe and North America. Each of our data centres has a choice of targeting any one of the three London sites for access to the Internet ensuring that connectivity to your web site is always maintained.

As part of a tier 1 network provider we are able to offer a unique level of network capacity and performance as well as our industry leading 100% uptime guarantee.