E-COLO.COM provides Colocation, Managed Servers, Internet Connectivity and Content Delivery Services

How To Pick A Colocation Data Center

Many Organizations struggle with the decision of using a Data Center without support staff, a Data Center facility with various degrees of technical support including remote hands, application and hardware support, or using a Hosting Company that handles everything including hardware.

There are many pros and cons depending on many factors including:

Location

The Data Center location is very important. To minimize cost, many organizations have chosen Data Centers located near your offices so their personnel can support it. In small and mid sized Cities you might have much of a choice. In larger Cities you must consider what part of town you choose for your Data Center. In Cities like Los Angeles, New York City, or Houston it could take your technical staff one to two hours to get to the other side of town.

Your choice of City also depends on the available of providers, amount of power outages, Weather (tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding), and technical resources. Several Companies located their Backup applications in a different town in most cases out of state. In states the size of Texas or California you might have a facility in Dallas and Houston, or Los Angeles and Sacramento. This is true for both Managed Hosting and Data Center Facilities.

Companies

There are large and small Data Center and Hosting Companies. The Hosting or Data Center Companies differ in many respects. The size of the Company including Technical support are important because you do not want to rely on one or two individuals for your important applications.

Technical Staff

If you use a Managed Hosting Company you do not have to worry about equipment, bandwidth, or Technical resources because they provide the whole enchilada. If you use a Data Center or what is commonly known as a Colocation Company their technical staff, Certifications, and specific expertise with various manufacturers’ hardware, and applications is vitally important.

Equipment Costs

The cost of equipment including but not including Servers, Blade Servers, Routers, Switches, and Monitors can cost several thousands of dollars per month to lease or to buy. With the ever changing technologies many have found leasing their equipment is more cost effective, reduce maintenance issues, and promotes upgrading equipment when available.

Service Level Agreements

SLA or Service Level Agreement vary also and in most cases are worth the paper they are written on. Receiving a few hundred dollars or even thousands or dollars when your downtime could have cost your Company hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Environments

Data Center and Hosting Facilities environments should include a minimum of 2X for each including :

Power (levels of redundancy)

Dual Access to separate power grids insuring there are no terrestrial connections including in the primary redundancy. Battery Backup, Power Search protection, Generator power for at least 72 hours with multiple trucking Companies supplying the diesel.

HVAC or Air Conditioning Systems

Keeping your servers, cabinets, and cages cool is a must. A redundant over subscribed HVAC system is a must.

Water

Many providers forget about water but their HVAC systems and some fire suppression systems use water.

Fire Suppression

Specific area suppression is required. You do not want the whole floor wet because of one server on the other side of the data center heat up.

Office Space

In an emergency or natural disaster having a data center that has a cubical, desk, or even workstations available for your use could be priceless.

Bandwidth

All Data Centers have various Carriers (ATT, Verizon,Abovenet, Internap, XO, Level(3), Cogent, etc.) build into Their facility. They generally connect in part of the facility called the Meet-Me room. Access to multiple Internet, and fiber providers with separate connections leaving the facility will reduce the changes of downtime due to backhoe or other issues.

Cost

I put cost last because many people lose their objectivity when they see how much various Organizations Charge for their services as opposed to how much will it cost our Company if this application, or backup system Is down. It could be thousands of dollars per minute and could cost someone’s job if there is down time.

Sincerely,

Jim (JR) Regan
Colocation Consultant
713-443-5911