How to choose a data center

Last Updated on 2019-09-02


While LayerStack is committed to delivering a 99.95% uptime SLA for all data centers, selecting a data center that is geographically advantageous to your cloud server is in your best interest. A data center that is closer to you, your target clients, your partners and regional staff usually means less latency, higher network speed, and faster throughput. To put this into perspective, our Looking Glass page provides various tests and the necessary information that gives you full transparency into the backbone routing and network performance you receive from our data centers around the world.


Hong Kong Data Center: https://hk03.layerstack.com

Singapore Data Center: https://sg01.layerstack.com/

Taipei Data Center: https://tp01.layerstack.com/

Tokyo Data Center: https://jp01.layerstack.com/

Los Angeles Data Center: https://la01.layerstack.com/

Ping

Ping tests how quickly your server gets a response after a request is sent out. This round-trip time is measured in milliseconds (ms) and you can use this information to compare the network latency between your local point and different data centers. The shorter the time needed for this round trip, the lower the latency and hence the better option for your location.


To run a ping test for your operating system, follow the instructions below.


Run ping on Windows

ping (IPv4 of our data center) -n 30

Run ping on Linux

ping -c 30 (IPv4 of our data center)

Run ping on Mac OS

ping (IPv4 of our data center)

The smaller the time value of the probe message (time = xxx ms), the shorter the round-trip, which means it is the better choice.

Download Speed

During a download speed test, your server downloads a file of known size from a test server. The test measures the time needed to complete the download and calculates your connection speed from it.

For example, a 20 MB file that takes 20 seconds means an 8 Mbits/s connection speed, while a 16 Mbits/s connection will take 10 seconds to complete the download. (8Mbit/s = *1MB/s).


Click “Test files 50MB/100MB” from our Looking Glass webpage to test your download speed.

Traceroute

Traceroute is a network diagnostic tool that displays the route taken by packets across a network and measures any transit delays. It shows you each hop sequentially and the total hops required, hence revealing the health of your connections. It also shows how systems are connected to each other, letting you see how your ISP connects to the Internet as well as how the target system is connected.


To run a traceroute test for your operating system, follow the instructions below.


Run traceroute on Windows

  1. Click Start in your Windows and Search cmd
  2. Click OK / Click Windows Command Processor
  3. At the command line prompt, input: tracert (IPv4 of our data center)

Run traceroute on Linux

  1. Open a terminal window (E.g. Putty)
  2. At the command line prompt, input: traceroute (IPv4 of our data center)

Run traceroute on Mac OS

  1. Search for the Network Utility application (E.g. Terminal) and open it.
  2. At the command line prompt, input: traceroute (IPv4 of our data center)


Related Tutorials