In the previous release was outlined how the location, reputation of the data centre, own customer needs and technical infrastructure are key components to choose a data center. This new article will fulfill a series of basic advices every manager ought consider in this matter.
Technical support
In choosing a data center I will pay undivided attention to the technical support staff. How well versed are the field engineers? How many are in there? What about their shifts? I would expect to have 24/7 coverage while making sure the CEs aren’t exhausted like to fall in error due to fatigue. The same questions applies for OS (Linux, Windows, etc) engineers -if offered by the DC (data center) as managed-service.
Are updated the resources in state-of-the-art technologies? Do they take trainings often? These are couple of important questions to ask.
Reliability
In seeking for a data center for my company I’d expect a reliability of at least 99.9999% of the time. If possible, get insight from others customers.
Also, notice the reliability has links to the service provided by both the facilities and the technical support staff. Can you make the click at first hand?
Security
For sure all we want our investment to be safe. My advice to choose a datacenter in this aspect is supported by these topics:
- External security
- Internal access
- Network hardening
On external security, a single point of access to the datacenter is prefered by many customers. This allows for a granular control of who enters and leaves the DC. Security cameras and well trained security guards are essential to guarantee a safe environment. The usage of motion-detection devices and drones are others good supporters of the external security.
Typically all the data centers have good internal access methods in place. Anyway, I strongly recommend you taking the tour in their facilities and pay attention on how they handle your visit (registration, for example), badges, types of doors to access compartments, cameras and asking about the building itself is a good tip.
I chose to link the network hardening to the security topic because I strongly want you to consider this advice: Ask the data centre executive if they have enough resources to mitigate a DDoS attack in case it would happen. Also, such a thing happens will still let you operate or will cut you off the network? For sure there are things to negotiate in this matter. Please do so!
Financial stability
This aspect is so important! It doesn’t matters if the data center outperforms in all the previous topics, if they are in economic constraints I wouldn’t recommend hiring their services. You need peace of mind that your IT operations will run smoothly and they’re not going to be threatened by third-party ghosts. Is your data center prospect able to guarantee a minimum 5-years uninterrupted service? That’s the minimum term I’d consider.
So, ask the executives for economic balances and other financial history, check out press releases and review against economic chambers the DC should be a member of.
Article end
My third post about data centers will illustrate where in the world are located the data centers of some well known companies. Please follow on it and share if you like.
Obviously these articles are based upon the assumption you would like to hire for services of a massive data center. It happens most of the time because you want to delegate the DC-related operations to a company plenty of resources to handle this task. Now, I would like to ask you: Have you outlined if you need an on-site data center solution? Might happen… Please leave your comments.