Four Questions To Ask A Network Colocation Center
There are hundreds of network colocation centers available -- and all of them are not made equal. Your network colocation center is going to impact how stable your organization's operations are. To make sure that your center is adequately equipped, you will need to ask some questions.
What Was the Last Large Incident They Experienced?
Here an "incident" refers to anything that took their system in entirety down. There are certain providers who have never experienced a large incident -- and there are others who have frequently experienced issues due to earthquakes, power outages, or other similar problems. Not only do you need to look at the incidents, but you also need to look at how quickly they were resolved and how effective the incident management team was.
How is the Center Secured?
When you're working with a colocation center, you aren't just concerned with digital security. Your data can be accessible physically; someone can walk in, take a hard drive, and look for any personally identifiable information or intellectual property. The center should be physically secured using key cards, biometric scanners, and other advanced technology and utilities. This is in addition to the monitoring that they should do at a digital level.
What Additional Services Are Available?
The best network colocation centers also offer value-added services, such as managed backup services or even Infrastructure-as-a-Service. If your organization is going to be needing additional technology, such as an infrastructure, a network colocation service is the best place to provide it. On the other hand, if you're only looking for a colocation center, this may not be as important.
How Scalable Are Your Services?
If you're thinking about being with a service for a while, you may want to start thinking about scalability. There are some network colocation services that really only serve those who are smaller -- single individuals and small companies. You need to know whether they have the resources available to deploy should your business dramatically grow. You'll also want to know whether they themselves have the resources necessary to stay stable in a relatively competitive market.
When looking at your network colocation service, you should be particularly careful about reviewing their service level agreements -- including what they will do to mitigate any failed servicing, such as if they go over the allotted amount of downtime. It is the service level agreement that you will use to compare multiple different colocation services, especially in terms of an apples-to-apples quote.