Choosing a cheaper product or service is not always advantageous. Whatever you buy, the consequences can be very bad.
That's why it's so important to choose good suppliers who deliver what you ask for on time. This couldn't be any different when it comes to a colocation provider.
Deciding in favor of Colocation
When a company's managers decide that it would be best for them to migrate to Colocation infrastructure, some precautions must be taken.
This is because this decision will change the characteristics of the company's cash flow, replacing investments in building infrastructure equipment (CAPEX) with expenses (OPEX); in a model where Data Center physical space and building infrastructure are contracted for the installation and operation of Information Technology (IT) equipment.
The right Data Center Colocation provider will make the difference when it comes to taking advantage of the opportunity to optimize cash flow, minimizing CAPEX and transforming these expenses into OPEX. In this way, the company will have more cash available for investments that have a direct impact on the business.
However, it's important to note that the organization's IT department will have to take part in evaluating this supplier. To do this, you need to know what characteristics this infrastructure must meet.
Follow this post to the end and find out how to do it.
Pay close attention when choosing a data center provider
You need to take the utmost precautions when hiring the services of a Data Center provider for your company. The key thing to know is that you need to have a secure and resilient infrastructure at your disposal that minimizes the likelihood of failures.
That's why you need to follow certain criteria when evaluating a supplier. Let's take a look at some of them:
1. How can Data Center Colocation help your company?
The objective when choosing a supplier should be both free cash flow capacity, to support business opportunities that arise for the company, and the provision of the best service. This question is decisive for the choice.
2. What services does the Data Center offer?
Another very important question for the contracting company. Your answer will show exactly what the Data Center provider's core business is. It is essential that they specialize in colocation services. This guarantees that the expertise of the contracted team will be the best possible.
In addition, another important distinguishing feature of good data centers is that they have corporate spaces with control rooms, Network Operations Centers (NOC), meeting rooms and offices.
If these spaces can even be customized with the visual identity of the contracting company, even better.
3. What additional services can be offered?
Offering additional services, such as backups, management services for operating systems and databases, and on-demand storage, allows the company to respond more quickly to business variations and seasonality, as well as making day-to-day operations much easier.
Another important point is the Data Center's connectivity characteristics. The greater the availability and capacity of telecommunications, the better the user experience will be.
Prefer data centers that have a PTT. In addition to better telecom capacity, a PTT guarantees better communications resilience, allowing users to access multiple operators.
4. Where is the Data Center located?
This is another very important criterion when choosing a supplier. Factors such as security and mobility must be taken into account. The geographical location of the Data Center must not be too far from the contracting company's headquarters.
It also needs to have easy access to the main streets, roads and highways and low telecommunication latency.
A Data Center located far from the contracting company's headquarters only makes sense if the technology to be used or the clients are in or near that structure.
It is also necessary to analyze the location criteria in terms of access by unauthorized people, the risk of problems such as flooding, proximity to gas stations, helipads and even aircraft routes, for example.
5. What is the Data Center's infrastructure like?
This is perhaps the most important criterion when choosing a data center provider. This is exactly where the danger lies, as any failure can result in a huge financial loss.
Anyone hiring a data center colocation provider should pay close attention to the condition of the facilities.
In addition, you should look at whether the network connectivity is robust, whether it is organized, what type of air conditioning there is, whether it is clean and what the energy sources and availability are.
Having redundancy is fundamental when determining which data center is best. Everything needs to be duplicated, because if something fails, there may not be enough time to fix it. Another structure can then be put into operation.
For these reasons and others, it is essential to visit the Data Center structure before signing a contract with a supplier.
6. How do certification, operation and support work?
It is very important that the administration of the operation is carried out by a specialized and in-house team. Service, on the other hand, must be provided through a proactive approach.
There must be speed and efficiency in the maintenance and installation of environments. The remote and on-site support team must be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year.
There are certifications that are recognized by the market as best practices: TR3 (or tier III) to guarantee the resilience of building infrastructure, ISO 27001 for information security operations, and PCI-DSS for handling and storing financial data are some practical examples,
7. What if there is a fire or an attempt to break into the premises?
The Data Center must be extremely secure. It should only be accessed by people who have been previously approved or accredited. However, even within the Data Center infrastructure, there need to be various credential checkpoints.
As far as fire prevention is concerned, it is necessary to have identification and fire-fighting systems, using inert gas. This is necessary to prevent damage to equipment.
8. Are there "hidden costs"?
This is also fundamental. From day one, it is very important to know what is included in the Data Center supply contract.
Other relevant information is:
- How charges are made;
- How much each service costs;
- What is not covered;
- What services are included in the contract.
9. Is it possible to talk to other clients for references?
Quality companies that supply Data Centers have nothing to hide from their future contractors. That's why it's very common for them to refer clients who they can talk to and get to know, in practice, what the supplier's real commitment is.
We hope this article has been relevant to you. Contact us to find out more about our services or to ask any other questions you may have.
