List of `shelf-space' (aka `server co-location' or `server hosting' or sometimes even `facilities management') providers in the UK

Here is a list, compiled initially for my own benefit, of ISPs in the UK who provide a `shelf-space' service. That is to say, they'll allow you to put your computer in their NOC or POP connected to their bit of the Internet, and you get to manage it remotely.

Prices and services vary greatly, and this list is probably incomplete.

I've tried to give both the main URL and a link directly into the relevant page, and to a pricing page if that's different; these will go out of date as ISPs rearrange their web sites.

The pricing information is in UK pounds per annum, exclusive of VAT, and may be inaccurate (I'll correct it if you point it out to me); in any case price is only a rough indicator of the facilities offered.

The list

Oaktree; details; L1200pa at 17.02.1997.
Rednet; details; L2000pa at 17.02.1997.
Frontier (ftech.net); details; L2500pa at 17.02.1997.
U-Net; details; L2500pa at 17.02.1997.
VBCnet; details; L11,400pa at 17.02.1997.
Xara; details; L12,000pa at 17.02.1997.
PSINet UK; details; no price listed at 17.02.1997.
Team Four; details; `email us with your ... specification [for] a quote' (29.10.1997).
Oxford CommUnity Internet; `details negotiated on a per-contract basis'.
TECC; no details atm due to reorganisation.
Planet Online; I couldn't find the details on their web page.
Anglianet; I couldn't find the details on their web page.
Oaktree; details; L1200pa at 17.02.1997.

Updates

If you know of or are an ISP who ought to be on this list but isn't, or if one of the links is out of date, please contact me (address below).

Please note what exactly it is that we're talking about here. We're not talking about straightforward web page hosting. We're not talking about the ISP doing something for the customer on the ISP's computer. We're talking about the ISP hosting the customer's computer, under the customer's management.

If you mail me please give me the URL for the relevant sub-page at the site as well as the main page, as this will save me trawling through the site looking for the right page.

Having said all that, my contact address is ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk.

Notes

I compiled this mainly by going through the web pages of the ISPs listed in the List of UK ISPs.

I have to say that many ISPs home pages are utterly awful, often unreadable to those not using netscape, frequently completely devoid of any useful information, sometimes even using obnoxious netscape-isms to turn the WWW into a kind of rich man's television, complete with meaningless flashy adverts.

Ian Jackson ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk.

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