Below is an email that our management team received from a colocated customer today regarding a recent visit to our data center. One of the selling points we always highlight to potential colocation customers is the level of expertise they have access to 24/7. For those of you that colocate gear elsewhere you are likely familiar with how empty a data center can be. The truth is, it is not uncommon for a data center to have just 1 person manning the facility just to make sure the power is on and the network is up. If both of those things are “check” then he is doing his job, if not then he starts calling people who know how to fix them…but those people are not him. God forbid you need some help with your server or have questions about how to configure something. Cue the blank stare and company line of “we don’t provide management services on colocated equipment.”
….This is how we do it at Hivelocity.
Hey Guys:
I just wanted to really express a heartfelt thanks for how things were handled yesterday and how you guys do things in general.
You guys really do an incredible job at making me feel right at home whenever I come to the datacenter.
It was great seeing ya’ll yesterday and catching up, making servers work, and just overall another kick-ass experience at the datacenter. . .I didn’t leave until nearly 4AM after having arrived around 4PM the previous day. LOL! 🙂
Hell. . .even Dan came to visit me in the Colo Lounge yesterday to follow-up.
Jake, Tom P., and Chad — where would I be without those guys!?
Oh and Ryan!! Ryan crawled up under the floor to plugin my PDU!!
Jake gave me a networking primer yesterday (I’m sure he saw my eyes glazed over HAHA!!) and also hit me with some great recommendations on protecting my equipment from brute-force attacks (internalizing them using a 2nd VLAN).
Kevin saw to it that we got things situated it from the time I walked in, shortly thereafter someone somewhere heard me thinking about networking, because Jake walked into the colo lounge and when I saw his face, it was like the sun had just come out! HAHA!!
Chad must have come and checked on me about 10 times through the afternoon and into the evening (I swear he was gonna eventually be like: “Eric if you pick up that phone one more time, I’m gonna break your arm!!” HAHA!! Maybe he was thinking it. . .but he never even got flustered. . .helped me out NUMEROUS times with a drive issue, etc). Then Tom P. came to my rescue with a RAID problem.
And all this was a continuation of my visit from Saturday. . .Jesse helped me out, Chad, and Conal, and Ryan.
Jay handles abuse cases like he knows that I handle them the same way he would — it’s not uncommon for him to let me know in advance before null routing an IP so that I can get the issue handled with the client before they get null routed.
I’m not sure how Hivelocity chooses who they hire or not, but I can say beyond a doubt part of the process must involve personality and people skills or whomever makes that process happen must have a skill for choosing great people.
I’ll be back again Friday and I’m looking forward to it.
I’d like to possibly do something for you guys. . .maybe buy pizza and beer (I’m kidding about the beer Steve — maybe after hours)..plus we’d have to keep that on the hush from Steve though. . .or he might feel left out that he didn’t get to drink with us HAHA.
Anyway. . .just wanna say thanks. I’m just really thankful for all you guys do.
Sometimes I feel like I work there with you guys. . .everyone talks to me, and works with me as if I’m part of the Hivelocity Team, instead of just a client.
I’ve had a few “oops” experiences too. . .but I can honestly I could count on one hand how many times those have happened, and I could probably be missing fingers too. 😉
I’ve been with Hivelocity since 2004 — man how the time flies. I remember starting with 2 VPS machines, and consistent talks with Drew/Kevin/Rob grew that out nearly 10 years later to now what is something like 15-20 dedicated/colo machines and the most consistent uptime/client experience I’ve ever had — even before I lived in Florida and was able to visit the datacenter as frequently as I do now.
Thanks for being awesome my dudes. Really. Thanks.
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We have removed the customer name for privacy purposes: Website Business Consultant
