When selecting a data center to provide a public cloud, or host a private cloud, there are three key considerations to keep in mind:
1) Local market availability. Where your business resides is probably the easiest place to begin to seek a data center solution, but don’t forget to consider where the bulk of your customers are located. Having your data access points closer to your customers will provide them a better experience. There is good reason that many data center operators and facilities reside in the New York metro market. It is a global marketplace of business opportunities both for commercial and consumer purposes.
2) Connectivity. Simply put – a data center without connectivity has little to no value. Look at facility location in relation to available fiber. If there is fiber already in the facility, identify how much of it is available and if availability meets the growing demands of data consumers.
3) Power. Access to power is crucial. Facilities absolutely must have redundancy. All data centers will have emergency power (generators) and almost all will provide uninterruptable power (UPS), but neither are good enough if they can’t supply the amount of power required to support todays’ and future hardware needs. Ask questions about availability and cost for all levels of redundancy. Pricing for power varies tremendously across the country – factor this into your overall operating expenses when evaluating a complete solution.
While there are many more factors companies must consider, these three key factors provide a baseline for consideration. Once you are satisfied with the provider’s ability to meet your company’s growing needs, then you can dive into the harder questions such as add-on fees, managed services, technical support and more.
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This guest article was written by Eril Levitt, VP of Sales for Open Data Centers based in Piscataway, NJ. Open Data Centers is carrier neutral operator in New Jersey and NYC. ODC offers colocation services to a range of clients in the TriState area looking for carrier neutral connectivity and low latency for trading applications.