C I Host’s Los Angeles Data Center Now Has HSRP Configuration

C I Host, in another step to make its 100 percent uptime guarantee rock-solid, has added an additional Cisco router for n+1 redundancy and configured its Los Angeles Data Center with a Cisco Hot Standby Routing Protocol (HSRP).

“Ensuring reliability is an ongoing process, and this removes another possible point of failure from our Los Angeles data center,” said Christopher Faulkner, CEO of C I Host. “We are committed to doing all we can to keep our clients’ servers up and running at all times.”

The Cisco HSRP provides automatic router backup when it is configured on Cisco routers that run a variety of protocols.

HSRP uses a priority scheme to determine which HSRP-configured router is the default active router. HSRP uses the exchange of multicast messages to advertise priority among HSRP-configured routers. When the active router fails to send a hello message within a configurable period of time, the standby router with the highest priority becomes the active router. The transition of packet- forwarding functions between routers is completely transparent to all hosts on the network.

“This means that if a router fails anywhere in the network, HSRP will automatically and instantly transfer the routing function to a router that is working,” Faulkner said. “The flow of data will continue seamlessly and all Web sites will be up and making money for their companies.”

C I Host is continually upgrading its data centers in Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago and will open a data center in London in January.

During the first six months of this year, C I Host doubled the Los Angeles data center to 10,000 square feet and installed two additional DS-3 connections from Qwest Communications and Verio, as well as a GigE connection from Cogent Communications.

This brought the total bandwidth to a capacity that exceeds 1,100mbits/second, making the center capable of handling 4,000 clients.

To protect against any physical or electronic attack at the LA Center, C I Host installed hot swap Cisco 7206 VXR routers in March and added redundant firewall systems and additional biometric security measures.

With more than 200,000 customers in 182 countries all over the world, C I Host continues to be a global leader in Web hosting and Internet solutions.

C I Host (www.cihost.com), based in the Dallas/Fort Worth market, is a Web hosting and Internet solutions provider, domain name registrar (DNR) and application service provider (ASP) serving 200,000 individual consumers and businesses in 182 countries worldwide.