Key Factors to Consider While Choosing Your Data Center Partner

Deciding your data center partner is not something you do frequently, it is a long-term commitment which has direct impact on your business and hence requires thorough due diligence.

Data center co-location means that you are relocating your data center from your facility to a third-party facility which can commit the required uptime as required by the business. You should look for the following while deciding your data center:

• Location – Ensuring Stability and Accessibility: Choosing a right location for your data center is critical. You should select a location that is not prone to natural calamities. You should also keep in mind that the selected location is easily accessible so that SLA related to your hardware parts replacement don’t go for a toss. In case you are looking for secondary site it is always recommended to look in another region (seismic zone) altogether.

• Reliability – Evaluating Uptime Commitment: Reliability for a data center is measured as the uptime committed by data center. Business needs your applications to be available 24×7 and hence you need to evaluate what is the uptime being committed by your partner. You should choose a location which is known for multiple or at least with 2 source of power availability. You will need to evaluate the data center design as to how your data center provider has planned for business continuity in case of power failure, how redundancy is built for critical non-IT components like transformer, DG, UPS and other aspects in the data center.

• Scalability – Expansion plans: As stated above this is a long-term commitment, hence the data center partner that you are choosing should not just fulfil your current requirement but should also have the appetite to fulfil your future requirements. You need to check the financial stability of the partner as it will help you select the right partner for your journey ahead.

• Connectivity – Importance of a Carrier Neutral Facility: You should always look for a carrier neutral facility. Evaluate the datacenter’s network connectivity options and multiple telecom service providers’ availability. Evaluate their network infrastructure – especially latency and redundancy. Robust connectivity is crucial for smooth operations and fast data transfer. You should also evaluate how your data center provider is providing connectivity to public clouds as it is a must in a hybrid cloud deployment.

• Security – Ensuring Physical and Network Safety: Datacenter should have physical and network security measures in place. Factors such as surveillance systems, access controls, fire suppression systems, and compliance with industry standards are a must. You need to ensure that your data center partner should have all the relevant certifications in place to run your business.

• Sustainability – Emphasizing Green Energy and Certifications: It takes enormous amount of energy to operate datacenters. Our conventional energy sources are not good for the environment, hence as a responsible organization you should strive to understand what your data center partner is doing for sustainability. Are they producing their own green energy using solar grid (or by other green source) or have they committed to a certain percentage usage of green power for running the facility? You must evaluate your data center partner’s energy efficiency initiatives, steps they have taken towards ESG & sustainability and look out for certifications such as LEED, IGBC or any other certification for their green credentials.