We have space with Digital Realty (aka TELX) and 60 Hudson and lately it's
been a nightmare getting in. The real estate management company is having
us reconsider our options. They are giving us the option to have ID badges
for our employees but for anyone else that wants access we need to request
it 48 hours in advance to get approval. So if we plan on having an
unexpected outage and we need to have a have a vendor come on site (e.g. a
Dell tech) we will need to let them know in advance.
What are peoples experiences with 111 8th and 165 Halsey? We really like
the connectivity options at 60 Hudson but at some point the hassle becomes
not worth it.
We do not have all of the carriers you can get at 60 Hudson but we do have many at 365 Data Centers at 65 Broadway and I can guarantee you won’t have the headaches from 60 Hud, and you can probably save money. Let me know if you have any interest and we can discuss your requirements so I can get you a quote.
We just had an issue where cisco was going to replace a power tray in our router at 60 hudson, we are also at telx. Cisco contracts with IBM for this. The building is now checking that all 3rd party vendors have an existing Certificate of insurance (COI). This take 48 hours to get put in there system...
So now we are forced to use telx smarthands if it's under 48 hours or weekends
I will generally prefer the smaller operators in a market for many reasons, but most relevant to this situation is that they simply don't have the market power to be jerks. They may want to be nice, but they have to be nice, else people go elsewhere.
As the engineer working on that Cisco / IBM issue Erik mentioned...
I was able to get walk-up, same-day access to the building for myself a few weeks ago (as a customer of DR) and didn’t get my hand slapped for it. DR just created the access ticket with the building and that was enough. It took about 20 minutes start to finish.
But if a vendor tech needs access, they need a COI generated, and that must be sent to the building ahead of time via DR. Otherwise they will be turned away.
The COI was the biggest blocker. A 48 hour lead time for the visit didn’t seem to be enforced, not by Digital Realty anyway.
Also, I tried to arrange for permanent building key card access while I was there. But the key cards must be used at least once every 60 days, otherwise they are deactivated. I decided just to arrange for access ahead of time since I don’t visit often.
While dealing with DR is not always fun in this case it isn't their fault.
The building management is the one creating the issues. I used to have no
issues and now every time it seems like there are new rules to get in. Over
all it seems that everyone has high praise for 165 Halsey so I will start
there.
Yeah, with the demise of 111 8th as a carrier hotel, Halsey seems to
be becoming a default for many. My prediction is that you won't have
trouble getting to who you want to there. Thought I would be nice to
have another facility outside of Manhattan as an alternate point in
which to congregate.
Yeah, this is another issue I've been seeing pop up more in the last
several years. Apparently there have been a few incidents in the past
that caused accountability problems so now any outside vendor is
required to have a COI on file to do work in many colos (irespective
of colo operator). That can take a bit to do if they're a new
contractor. Once on file, a renewal is usually an easy thing but
getting the initial paperwork done can take time. After that, they can
come and go as they please, so long as access tickets are duly arranged.
What about remote hands? What I like about DR is their staff levels and
resources should there be a storm etc. they are fully staff. I rarely use
their remote hands but when I do they are golden. They also have a great
record.
I feel the issue here is people are already paying for support contracts and vendors to come on site. Now there's the additional incurred cost for remote hands to handle it.
If it's a situation where it's replacing a person of my internal staff to act on it, sure. But if I'm paying Dell to come in and do hardware work anyway but they can't get in, I don't want to pay that extra forced cost.
