Three Factors to Consider When Choosing a Data Center

A company that relies on a colocation service will be housing its critical computing and networking infrastructure as well as confidential data under somebody else’s roof. Therefore, it has to make sure that the data center that it uses can truly be relied upon. If you are the one who has to choose the most reliable data center for your company, the following are important factors to mind to make sure that you choose a truly reliable data center.

1. Data center type

Data center types are distinguished by their tiers. Tier one data center offers 99.671% uptime, but you must expect a 28.8 hours of downtime every year if you use this data center type. This is particularly because tier one data center consists only of one power and cooling distribution path and no redundant component. If one day downtime doesn’t cost too much for your company, a tier one or tier two data center will be enough to satisfy your company’s needs, but if your company is like the ones that lose $500,000 after 1-hour downtime, you absolutely have to choose tier three or tier four data center.

2. Location

Colocation service seems to undermine the importance of distance between your company and the location of data center. Remember that although a data center is always expected to be perfectly managed by the service provider, you have to check the physical condition of your data center regularly. This, in turn, requires the data center to be located near your company.

3. Scalability

Using a flexible and scalable data center is always a great idea because you literally pay only for what you use. If you are anticipating expansion but you don’t want to do that costly effort today, you certainly need to rely on a scalable data center.