TL; DR: DataPacket, based in the UK, provides dedicated hosting solutions to bandwidth-intensive businesses across the globe. The company aims to raise industry standards through reliable, high-performance servers and real-time support via multiple convenient channels. With a continuous effort to expand its already sprawling datacenter coverage through additional points of presence, DataPacket is furthering its commitment to efficiently delivering data to end-users worldwide.
In high school, at a time when most teens are busy riding the ups and downs of their social lives, 15-year-old Zdenek Cendra was starting his first web hosting venture.
By 2014, his experience in the industry gave him the skills needed to found DataPacket, a global provider of dedicated servers built to handle even the most demanding digital environments.
“We launched DataPacket with a mission to bring bandwidth-hungry applications closer to their end users,” said Simon, Head of Sales at DataPacket. “At a time when a 1Gbps dedicated server uplink was considered the industry standard, we were among the first providers to offer truly unshared and unmetered 10Gbps bandwidth.”
Today, the UK-based hosting provider continues to make waves in the industry by providing high-performance hardware and premium data delivery solutions to bandwidth-intensive businesses worldwide. After five short years on the market, DataPacket’s network now includes 20 Tier 3 datacenters with 6,000 physical servers around the globe and a whopping 18Tbps upstream capacity.
In addition to its top-notch technology, DataPacket prides itself on its dedication to customers. The company’s 40-plus team members focus on building customer trust by providing the most efficient delivery of data possible and ensuring outstanding support through short response times, transparent communication, and clear pricing.
Moving forward, DataPacket will continue to add additional points of presence around the globe while providing real-time support via multiple convenient channels to suit the ever-changing needs of customers. “Rather than adapting to new trends in our industry, we focus on setting them,” Simon said.
Raising Standards in the Dedicated Hosting Space
The team behind DataPacket knew from the start that the company possessed the skills needed to stand out among a crowd of competitors.
“Given our experience in the content delivery network (CDN) space, and our robust multihomed network featuring private interconnections with TIER-1 IP carriers to build upon, we knew we could do better than the big players,” Simon said. “The slow and poorly trained customer support, dubious routing, and insufficient choice of datacenter locations offered by established providers were not hard to outperform.”
When it comes to hardware, Simon said DataPacket was among the first providers to offer unshared 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) ports and up to 40 Gbps of usable bandwidth per server. “The explosion of video content and surge of the streaming industry over the past few years were some of the bigger contributors to rising bandwidth needs,” Simon said.
At the same time, Simon said the industry is facing continued commoditization, with the majority of vendors aiming to compete on price only. “It is pushing the whole industry down,” he said. “More often than not, a lower price means poor service.”
DataPacket, on the other hand, is the go-to for service customers who are willing to pay a little more for a hassle-free experience and high levels of reliability. “We want our customers to have peace of mind when hosting with us so that they can focus on their actual business rather than having to deal with vendor issues,” Simon said.
Real-Time Support Via Email, Phone, and Slack
Simon told us that DataPacket is run by a team of independent spirits who seek results above all else. “That’s why you won’t see us wasting countless hours in pointless meetings and getting bogged down with unnecessary processes that slow things down,” he said.
The company works under a flat organizational structure designed to reduce bureaucracy and empower employees to make important decisions. This allows the team to move quickly when adapting to changes in the marketplace, all while putting customer needs first.
“Being completely bootstrapped, we believe the best investors are happy customers,” Simon said. “Furthermore, we thrive on challenges, and our product advancements often happen as a result of seemingly impossible requests.”
In fact, customer feedback has been the impetus for many of DataPacket’s features, including two-factor authentication; real-time DDoS protection; and Instant Delivery, which enables customers to choose from hundreds of available specifications. “All of these features are being continuously improved based on the feedback from our customers,” Simon said.
DataPacket also installed the open-source software Collectd — used to monitor, analyze, and predict system load — as a standard on all servers in response to customer feedback. “Sure, the product itself is top-notch, but where we truly stand out is in our commitment to putting customers at the forefront,” Simon said. “Our 24/7 tech support team is in the problem-solving business, and it shows.”
The company goes above and beyond by providing multiple communication channels through which customers can reach out for help in getting issues promptly resolved. The DataPacket support team consists only of highly trained in-house engineers who compete via an internal leaderboard for the shortest average response time.
This means customers don’t have to wade through a tiered support system until they find someone who can handle their issue. Instead, they’re connected with knowledgeable support almost immediately. DataPacket is also unique in that, in addition to email and phone, it offers 24/7 support through Slack, a popular collaboration tool that helps people around the globe unify their systems. The service is free for those with monthly plans above a specified threshold and available at a low price for all other customers.
Upgraded Infrastructure and New PoPs
DataPacket’s high-quality dedicated servers are housed in Tier 3, ISO-certified datacenters spanning 20 global locations in Europe, the United States, and Asia. All datacenters feature redundant power supply, cooling, and connectivity, plus pre-action fire sprinkler systems.
“We continually strive to expand our global reach and the quality of our network by adding new PoPs,” Simon said. “We have Sao Paolo coming up next on our road map, where there is one additional data center we’d like to move in to by the end of this year.”
Apart from establishing new points of presence, DataPacket continuously focuses on upgrading its current infrastructure. In the past two months, the company wrapped up a major expansion of its Chicago datacenter in terms of both rack space and network capacity, optimized routing from Dallas to Mexico to decrease latency and provide better stability, and fine-tuned routing from Singapore.
“The total capacity of our network has recently been increased to 18Tbps and counting,” Simon said. “As we continue to add new direct peers, our efficiency in delivering data worldwide improves steadily.”
The company is also working on a redesign of the DataPacket website built on React.js that is slated to go live later this month.
“A faster website means a better user experience, and that translates directly to business performance,” Simon said. “We’re taking the necessary steps in this regard to improve the usability of our website and level up our online presence.”
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