The data center colocation market is expected to exceed $90 billion by the year 2024, as more companies are making the transition. Is yours?
This is obviously a massive shift, with a number of factors that should influence your decision on which location and provider to go with.
To ensure that you’re setting your company up for a maximum return on investment, here are 4 things your would-be provider must offer you.
1. Data Center Location
No, we did not list price as the number one consideration, partly because location will influence your price. The path to finding cheap colocation providers will likely take you out of your own state, and that’s a good thing.
Some states have dramatically lower energy costs than others, which will greatly influence the price that the data centers will be able to pass on to you. Some states (Virginia, for example) will offer competitive tax benefits for these centers to build and hire locally. This could be another reason they offer you a lower price.
Also, you always want your data center to be located far enough away from you so that you won’t be impacted by the same natural disaster, storm, or outage.
2. Proven Certification
We don’t recommend working with any data centers that offer ‘equivalent’ facilities, such as a Tier 3 or 4 Equivalent data center. This essentially means they’re promising you the same level of service and performance as an Uptime Institute Tier 3 or Tier 4 facility, without the certification to prove it.
Getting certified is an expensive and extensive process for any data center. However, it remains the industry mark for data center reliability, and we recommend you only work with companies that have gone through the certification process.
3. Scalability
Be sure to discuss what your company needs today, but be mindful of what your needs may look like 5 years from now.
Are you potentially introducing new products or services? Are you looking to expand to more locations across the country, or even internationally? These are questions that need answers, so you can ensure your would-be data center can scale your package to meet your future needs.
You plan on growing. Will they help you or will they stand in your way?
4. Support and Customer Service
Where will they be when you need them the most. Calls into data center tech support and customer service are often urgent ones. You need to know you can trust your provider.
Ask yourself if service is something they are actively telling you about during the sales process. Do they have references and case studies to show you how fantastic their service is? You want to make sure the level of attention you are receiving today won’t fade after you have signed the dotted line.
Again, you will notice we didn’t list price as a top priority. That is because the return on investment you see from your data center will depend on the location and certification, as well as the level of scalability and service they can offer you.
Focus on the value, not the price!
