"Will 2013 be the year that your company makes the big move to the cloud? If so, here are five questions to ask that will help you make the right decision when choosing a Data Center.
What Kind of Redundancy Does the Facility Have?
The type of redundancy that a data center provides is basically its ability to back up accessibility to your information in the case of an emergency where a power outage might occur. If an unexpected power outage takes place, most commonly due to weather, then it can cost a company a lot of money if there is not sufficient enough back up. The amount to redundancy determines the type of Tier rating the data center has. The higher the Tier, the better protected you will be. However, it will also cost you more.
Is There Room to Grow?
If you are like most business, you will probably need more rack space in the future, so one of the things to ask a potential data center is if they are prepared for expansion. If not, then you might want to look elsewhere! The last thing you need is to go through the process of finding another data center and moving your servers to another location because your current data center doesn’t have the scalability to fit your expanding needs.
Do They Offer a Service Level Agreement (SLAs)?
A Service Level Agreement (SLAs) is an extremely critical tool to guarantee items such as power, temperature, and network uptime. Not all Data Centers offer an SLAs, but according to recent research, SLA’s are cited as one of the third most important criterion that IT executives look for when choosing a data center.
How About Safety and Security?
When it comes to choosing the right data center for your business, safety and security are extremely important matters to consider. Your company’s information should never be compromised because of security issues. Check out this article for a checklist of the top ten security features to look for when touring a data center facility.
What’s the Data Center’s Staff Like?
No matter how great a data center may sound, you will still have to deal with the people running the place. So one of the things you should do before making a commitment is to speak with the data center’s staff. Get to know them and make sure that you are comfortable with the people in charge. Are they friendly, knowledgeable and helpful? Is the facility manned 24/7/365? These are great things to find out prior to signing on the dotted line.
As with any service you might purchase, if you know what to ask beforehand then you are more likely to be satisfied with the outcome. Hopefully these five questions will get you where you need to be."
