Data centers are increasingly being entrusted with the growth strategies of enterprises. Companies have access to a huge number of data centers; yet, locating the one that best matches their requirements may be difficult. Not all data centers are made equal and entrusting your critical data and equipment to one takes both confidence and careful consideration. Because each data center has its own unique set of needs and services in addition to SD-WAN application solutions, you must consider many factors.
Location
Your data can be kept anywhere thanks to the cloud and remote access. Have you evaluated the reliability of the data center’s server facility?
It is critical to review thoroughly the potential for natural catastrophes, the position of adjacent fire departments, the structure’s structural soundness, and employee access.
Physical Protection
Data security is equally important as the physical security of the facilities. This includes a video surveillance system that is operational around the clock, a multi-layered access control system, reinforced doors and walls, and anything else that prevents unauthorized entry.
Redundancy in the Network
Uptime is critical when it comes to location and security. Servers that are critical to the organization’s functioning need a data center with several redundancies.
It is wise to employ several network devices and internet service providers (ISPs) in case one fails. Therefore, network congestion is reduced, and network uptime is increased.
Financial Backups
The financial history of the data center supplier you pick should be extensively investigated. You don’t want them to go out of business without warning, leaving your company scrambling to build fresh roots elsewhere. You also don’t want them to scrimp on infrastructure to save money.
The easiest approach to determining if a data center is performing successfully is to research the company’s financial statistics, such as sales, profit, and growth.
Adaptability
If you want to grow your organization, you will need a flexible data center. A vast number of providers offer one-size-fits-all solutions, which may limit your company’s development. Flexible data centers may be able to meet your company’s needs today and in the future.
Plan for Disaster Recovery
The lack of predictability characterizes calamity. If your business has a strong plan for dealing with disasters, it will have a better chance of avoiding a situation that could be bad for its operations.
These are important components for data centers. Your service provider should have certified professionals on staff whose job it is to set up and review plans for preventing disasters.
Think Ahead
Your data center must be technologically updated at all times. What is valuable now may not be useful in a few years. Ask about things like:
- Are there cloud services?
- Are cloud services linked directly to AWS?
- Can I save money by using this data center’s equipment?
Prepare ahead of time for upgrades. The quantity of energy used by a data center may be used to assess its bandwidth capacity.
24/7 Support and Surveillance
You should always be able to easily and consistently monitor how your servers and data are being used. This is something you should be able to accomplish. Knowing how much bandwidth is being utilized, how much storage is available, how much physical floor space is available, and whether or not there have been any outages is only the tip of the iceberg. To achieve total openness, ask the following questions while assessing a data center:
- Which archiving and backup services are available?
- If your staff is unable to go to the data center, what assistance solutions are available?
- How responsive is the staff at the data center? Do they have relevant consumer metrics?
- How efficient are their communication methods (SMS, chat, email, and phone)?
- How specific is their service level agreement (SLA)? Is a review copy available?
Operational Efficiency
It’s incredible if a data center achieves the aforementioned requirements. Go “under the hood” to better understand operational performance. Inquire if the CRACs (cooling and refrigeration units) are in the aisle or the aisleway. This has several consequences, including:
- Pollution caused by noise
- Maintenance (vendors in critical, secure whitespace areas)
- Plumbing in or across whitespace
- Filtering (introducing dust particles back into the whitespace areas)
Pricing
The last aspect to consider is price. After all, you are committing time and money to the process of establishing a data center, so you want to avoid any unpleasant financial surprises along the way. Make certain you investigate the following:
- How will they deal with price changes in utilities?
- What is their approach to increasing density while lowering electricity costs?
Conclusion
If you are proactive in your understanding of the qualities that have been outlined above, you will have the assurance that you are selecting the appropriate data center for your company.
Data center transfers are not something you want to do on an annual basis since they are difficult, complicated, and time-consuming. It is best to go with the one that gives you room to develop alongside it.
