How Inline Communications Ran a Five-Nines VPN on One Dedicated Server in Canada

“You guys are way better than I thought you would be. Trust me, if there was a problem, I’d have moved my client off your services a long time ago.” – Daniel Lynes, President, Hammer Software

The partnership: Amanah, Hammer Software, and Inline Communications

This case study looks at how Amanah works with managed service providers. The MSP is Hammer Software, a Hamilton IT firm; the end client is Inline Communications, a Mississauga telecom. Amanah supplies the infrastructure, Hammer Software builds and manages the solution that runs on it, and Inline Communications, which holds the account and pays for the server directly, gets a VPN that simply stays up.

Inline Communications is a Mississauga telecom that has been in business for 30 years, running voice-over-IP alongside traditional phone systems for customers across the Greater Toronto Area. Uptime is not a nice-to-have for a business like this; it is the product.

Inline Communications’ infrastructure is looked after by Daniel Lynes, President of Hamilton-based IT firm Hammer Software, the MSP behind this build. Since 2013, Hammer Software has handled managed services, networking, cabling, VoIP support, and custom software development for its clients. Daniel has been building systems since the late 1970s, holds three MikroTik certifications, and runs his own services in a colocation facility, so he evaluates infrastructure for a living.

It was Roman at Inline Communications who first found Amanah and suggested it as the answer to the problem Daniel was trying to solve. Daniel, skeptical of the price and unconvinced a host this affordable could hold up, agreed only reluctantly at first. Inline Communications bought the server; Daniel manages it on their behalf and answers for it when something breaks. Ten years later, with every reason and every opportunity to move elsewhere, that reluctant yes has held.

The challenge: finding a host that allows a custom OS image

Daniel had a specific job to do: stand up a fully operational router and centralize all of Inline Communications’ VPN services on it. That meant installing RouterOS, MikroTik’s router operating system, onto a virtual machine, which in turn meant finding a host that would let him install a custom OS from his own image.

That turned out to be the sticking point. He tried the usual cloud providers, and none of them would let him install an OS from an image. Some were also based in the US, adding latency across the border, and the service didn’t impress him. “We just couldn’t deliver the solution, period,” he says. He didn’t need more infrastructure; he needed a different kind of infrastructure.

The other hard requirement came from the client. For Inline Communications, the deciding factor was cost. For Daniel, it was maintainability. Any provider had to satisfy both. That’s the gap Roman’s suggestion closed.

The solution: a dedicated server running RouterOS via KVM

Amanah gave him exactly what the other hosts wouldn’t. On a dedicated server, a Dell R220, at 151 Front Street West, Daniel installed Cloudmin with a KVM setup, then installed RouterOS onto a VM to build the fully operational router he needed. From there he could centralize all of Inline Communications’ VPN services on a single, self-contained box, entirely under his control.

• Install a custom OS from an image – the capability the cloud providers he tried didn’t offer, which made the whole solution possible.
• KVM via Cloudmin – so RouterOS and every VM run under Daniel’s own management, not behind a support ticket.
• Predictable, competitive pricing – that met Inline Communications’ core requirement without surprises.

The price did give Daniel pause at first. Coming off the cloud, he assumed a number that low meant Amanah would be no better, maybe worse. “It seemed too cheap to be true,” he admits. It wasn’t. “You guys are way better than I thought you would be.”

The footprint has since shrunk, a sign of how comfortably the hardware handles the job. Inline Communications originally ran a second server, a Dell R520, alongside the R220 to support staff working in other countries; when that need went away, Daniel retired it. The remaining R220 has carried the full load on its own for the past ten years.

Performance: what five-nines uptime looked like over 10 years

The headline number is the one Daniel puts on it himself: uptime of 99.999% or higher, 24/7/365, sustained across ten years. “Five nines uptime,” as he calls it, “is what any service provider looks for.” For infrastructure that a VPN and a live router depend on, that is the whole ballgame.

• 99.999% – five nines uptime, 24/7/365.
• 10 yrs – with Amanah, and counting.
• 1 server – one R220 carries the load.

In ten years the only real interruption traced back to an issue on the VM side, not to Amanah, Daniel is careful to note. When that VM went down, there was no frantic call and no waiting in a queue: he used the server management interface to bring it back up himself, and it was a short blip against ten years of round-the-clock service. “Other than that,” he says, “the rest of the time it’s been up 24/7/365.”

That is exactly why Inline Communications stayed. For Daniel, maintainability and stability were the whole test. “If it wasn’t stable, I would have recommended he go somewhere else.”

The outcome: why Inline Communications stayed

The Amanah server began life as a stopgap, something to run the solution while Hammer Software built up its own hosting resources. Those resources exist now, and Inline Communications runs a second VPN server on them. Yet the Amanah box didn’t get switched off. It stayed on as the main VPN server, with the in-house one providing geographic redundancy across the network.

In other words, given every reason and the means to leave, Daniel chose to keep Inline Communications on Amanah, precisely because there was no reason to move. What started as a reluctant yes to Roman’s suggestion turned into a decade-long endorsement. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” he says. Inline Communications’ cost requirement is met, the reliability is a solved problem, and a partnership that began as a stopgap has quietly done its job for a decade.

Inside the facility at 151 Front Street West

Amanah operates out of 151 Front Street West, one of the most connected buildings in Canada. It is carrier-neutral, with access to 400+ networks and direct TorIX peering, so workloads hosted here reach more carriers, more routing options, and lower latency than they would almost anywhere else in the country.

• N+1 power redundancy – UPS with on-site generator backup and precision cooling.
• BGP multi-homing – redundant paths across tier-1 carriers for the most efficient route.
• 400+ networks, TorIX – carrier-neutral connectivity with direct Toronto internet exchange peering.
• Canadian-owned, local support – a Toronto team steps from the data centre, on one-year colocation terms.

With built-in DDoS protection keeping traffic clean and a support team based right in Toronto, the facility gives operators like Inline Communications an enterprise-grade foundation without enterprise-grade complexity, and keeps a Canadian client’s traffic on Canadian soil, no cross-border hop required.

Why dedicated servers suit VPN and router workloads

Inline Communications’ build is a textbook example of the kind of workload Amanah is built to host. A VPN or software router is always on, latency-sensitive, and unforgiving of downtime, and it usually needs a level of control that shared cloud instances won’t give you. That is exactly the gap Amanah fills for MSPs and providers running VPN services.

Here is how the dedicated server compared with the cloud providers Daniel tried first, on the requirements that decided this build:

• Install your own OS from an image – run RouterOS, pfSense, or any custom image on bare metal or under your own hypervisor, no vendor lock-in on the stack.
• Full control, self-service management – power-cycle, reinstall, and recover VMs yourself through the management interface, without waiting in a support queue.
• Low-latency, carrier-neutral routing – direct TorIX peering and 400+ networks at 151 Front keep VPN traffic fast and route around congestion.
• Always-on, Canadian-hosted – N+1 power, built-in DDoS protection, and five-nines uptime, with Canadian traffic staying on Canadian soil.

How Amanah supports MSPs and partners

Whether the account sits with an MSP or, as with Inline Communications, directly with the end client, Amanah becomes the infrastructure layer behind the service, and Hammer Software puts its own name on the uptime while handling the hard part underneath.

• Hands, feet, and eyes in Toronto – a local team steps from the data centre for the on-site work you can’t do remotely, so your clients never wait on a distant queue.
• Pricing that protects your margin – predictable, all-inclusive rates with no surprise fees, and we’ll beat any comparable colocation quote by 10%, so you can price your service with confidence.
• Your build, your control – bring your own OS, hypervisor, and configuration. We keep the power, cooling, and network on; you keep control of the stack.
• No lock-in, no risk to trial – month-to-month terms with no multi-year commitment, plus free consultations and data centre tours before you move a single client.

A hosting partner your MSP practice can build on

If you deliver services to clients and need a host that gives you real control, predictable pricing, and uptime you can put your name on, 151 Front is where that conversation starts. Free data centre tours, no commitment required. Talk to our team, or book a free tour.

Related reading

• Colocation vs dedicated servers
• Another Toronto dedicated server case study