Here’s the thing, if you are new to colocation or web hosting, deciding which New York City data center provider to invest in is a hard choice. Even if you are an old pro in the web hosting world, New York City data center providers are numerous and plentiful. As such, determining which provider you should use for server colocation services is a hard task.
To shed some light on why choosing your web hosting colocation provider in New York City can prove to be a hard task, we need to ask one question:
Why the hell are there so many data center colocation providers in New York City?
New York City Metro Data Center Colocation
In lower Manhattan alone, there are over 15 major data center carriers. Throughout midtown Manhattan and uptown New York City, there are additional 10 data center providers.
When you across the Hudson River to Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken and Secaucus, there are an additional 21 colocation data center providers. All told, in the larger New York City Metropolitan area, there near 50 data center carriers who provide colocation, Cloud hosting, managed hosting solutions and shared hosting.
The question remains why?
The answer is simple. New York City has so many colocation data center providers located in its metropolitan area because of the sheer volume of residents and businesses who call New York City Metro home. More to the point though, the reason why so many colocation providers operate from New York City is due to the overseas connections and paths they offer clients. Just like data centers in Los Angeles and Seattle offer excellent connections to the orient, New York City data center providers empower clients with an easy jump off to locations throughout Europe and Africa.
With so many web hosting facilities to choose from in New York City, what are the guidelines consumers and businesses should use when choosing one to house their IT needs?
A Quick Guide to New York City Metro Colocation
With any investment, you weigh the pros and cons. Before you invest in anything, you perform a cost benefit analysis to determine if the upsides of your investment outweigh the downside. Investing in New York City data center facilities should be treated in the same fashion. Here, two quick tips to choosing your NYC web hosting provider.
Price
Cut your losses here. It’s New York City. The price of colocation services will run higher than other metropolitan areas. You have to remember, colocation prices are determined by two major factors: power costs and physical space. We all know New York City inhabitants pay some of the highest rent per square foot in the world. Why would the price of data center square footage be any different?
Location
You might not realize it, but choosing to invest in a New York City colocation facility located in lower Manhattan over choosing a facility located in Secaucus, NJ might be the difference between continued uptime and disaster. Make no mistake about it; Manhattan is an island which sits only a few feet above sea level. As seen by Hurricane Sandy, lower Manhattan is highly susceptible to a rise sea level causing major data center outages.
This isn’t to say natural disasters can’t happen anywhere however if you are going to invest in long term colocation, it might be worth your money to invest in a data center not located to close to a very real threat.
At the end of the day investing in real estate and colocation within New York City comes down to two things: price and location. You’re going to pay a lot for excellent carriers who might or might not have a rising sea level problem.
Welcome to Manhattan!