- 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?
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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.
