At Burningbulb our first priority is providing our clients with the best, most dependable hosting experience possible. However, the quality of this experience depends, not only on the Burningbulb staff and support systems, but on the computer hardware itself. Without heavy investment in superior facilities and hardware Burningbulb could not offer its clients such a reliable hosting platform. Through Burningbulb's capital investments and dedication we hope it's clear how important our client's and their websites are to Burningbulb.

To learn more about Burningbulb's superior facilities and hardware please continue reading. If you are interested in information on individual hosting plans please visit the plans and prices section of this site.

Burningbulb's Network Operations Center (NOC) features raised flooring. This setup enables a constant flow of conditioned air to circulate throughout the server stacks and helps to maintain uniform room temperature at all times. In addition, raised flooring reduces static and ensures a professional, computer-grade environment for the servers that our client websites reside on.

The facility is equipped with a Raytheon fire suppression system, designed to immediately extinguish fire and protect equipment. The command center is controlled via automatic doors to further secure and protect all server and network equipment.

Finally, the NOC is located in a secure, monitored, class A building with a minimum number of approved personnel allowed access to highly sensitive areas and equipment. A detailed record of employee and visitor entry is maintained at all times.

To guard against local power failures, Burningbulb has two industrial-grade, three-phase Liebert UPS systems. These act as back-up batteries, maintaining uninterrupted power in case of surges or power outages. With these back-up systems in place, we can keep our network up and running indefinitely without relying on external power.

Burningbulb's NOC has two Liebert 10 ton industrial air conditioners that condition our computer rooms and operations center. Air temperature is maintained at an optimal 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

All of Burningbulb's custom servers are equipped with a positive-pressure filtered-air system. Four large fans pull filtered air into each server's protective case, and the components within are cooled by fans that circulate this purified air. This constant introduction of clean air into the case creates a positive pressure environment ensuring that dust and particles remain outside the server.

Each server employs dual-redundant hot swap power supplies. If a power supply were to fail, the server would continue running with power from the alternate supply. Meanwhile, alarms would alert a technician, who would quickly restore redundancy. In the meantime, servers and client sites would experience no downtime.

Burningbulb keeps spare servers online of all CPU configurations. If a server were to experience a hardware failure, we would turn a key, grab the handle on the drive, pull it out and insert it into an identical standby CPU. We would then reboot the second machine, and the server would be up and running again in a matter of minutes.

The Burningbulb NOC, located in Baltimore, Maryland, is OnNet with Frontier Global Crossing (FGC), Qwest Communications and AT&T through three separate bandwidth-on-demand connections that enter Baltimore in our building.

FGC, a Tier 1 provider with a 13,000-mile fiber optic network and Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology that provides an enormous 460 gigabytes per second (Gbps) of capacity worldwide, has an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) fiber node located just a few floors below the Burningbulb NOC.

Qwest also has an ATM fiber node just floors below the Burningbulb NOC. Our Qwest connection enables Burningbulb to offer additional redundancy and better routes to Europe, Latin America and Asia.

AT&T is our third Tier One Internet backbone. AT&T Managed Internet Service provides a reliable, dedicated, high-speed Internet connection and industry-leading Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Your business IP services will reside on AT&T's world-class OC-192/OC-48 IP backbone, providing you with managed, state-of-the-art hardware and software, smart routing capability, and continuous performance monitoring.

Furthermore, because of these unique connections, Burningbulb does not need to link to the Internet through an OC3 or T3 Telecom circuit. Instead, independent cables run inside our building directly from the Alabanza NOC to all three carriers' points of presence. These lines can handle the bandwidth of a T3 or an OC3 with DWDM. Plus, they handle several times the bandwidth of an OC3. Whatever your bandwidth needs may be, Burningbulb has the scalability to meet them.

Burningbulb uses intelligent end-user routing software called Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) between Qwest, FGC and AT&T, which use the same protocol. BGP identifies which path is the most efficient for each data packet and then routes the packet to its destination on the fastest path. This increases the speed at which web pages sent from our NOC arrive at their destination.

Studies have shown that the most common reason for downtime is circuit failure on Tier 1 provider backbones, the major data highways. To guard against this potential problem, we have three Tier-1 providers. If one experiences problems, we can route traffic down another one. Furthermore, because we are OnNet with FrontierGlobalCrossing, Qwest and AT&T, we share their digital distribution architecture, which @includes private peering network connections to major Internet carriers such as MCI, Sprint, UUNET, EUNET, AT&T, AOL, Best, Erols, @Home, IBM Advantis and others. These private peering arrangements allow Burningbulb to quickly and efficiently exchange packets of data with every major backbone carrier in a one-to-one environment.

Industry analysis reveals that 70% of downtime over 10 hours with any ISP is caused by telephone circuit failure. With Burningbulb, circuit failure is virtually eliminated. That's because our NOC is in the same building as FGC, Qwest and AT&T. There is no phone circuit between Burningbulb and these providers. Instead, there is a direct connection between our Cisco routers and theirs.

Burningbulb's providers also have peering connections with other major Tier 1 providers that allow traffic to be switched to alternate backbones should the need arise.