by Sharon Jones
Is your organization looking for a data center to handle your growing data? Is expansion looming and you badly need a reliable data center to manage the influx of new assets and information? When spending more for in-house storage and maintenance is not an option, you can always rely on hosted data center services. Using an external service provider to store is a wise solution, especially for emerging startups with exponentially growing consumer bases. But don’t jump headfirst into the first data center service you encounter. Due diligence pays off, so you should research first before partnering with anyone.
You can consult top data center blog articles for tips and recommendations, or you can put in a bit of effort to come up with a shortlist of candidates. In order to narrow them down, you might want to consider the following features when choosing the right data center.
Location and infrastructure
Yes, you’re getting a hosted data center service, but that doesn’t mean you won’t bother about anything else. With a projected volume of data for your storage, you can now start choosing the appropriate infrastructure that best suits your needs. You can start with your preference for the type of servers used, the location of the data center, and the configuration of the servers and networks. Decide based on what you project will be your need, as your organization is still expanding.
Reliability and efficiency
Remember, you’ll be using these data centers in conjunction with your daily operations. Your service provider should definitely be reliable, with at least 99.995% efficiency. Any outage that your data center may experience will reflect badly on your business. If your customers can’t access their data even for a minute, they can easily consider choosing your competitors. Power backup should be one of the top priorities, because even a short power failure can cost your business thousands in lost opportunities.
Data redundancy
The main reason you’re moving your business data to a data center is for security. Now imagine, your business suffered from an emergency or natural disaster, lost all the data you have on your office, from paper files to electronic documents. You’re heavily relying on the data center to have all these safely secured and accessible whenever you need it. But if your data center was also adversely affected by the emergency or disaster, then there was really no point in paying for their services. Everything will be lost because the data center was not fully equipped for redundancy.
Data security
The data center service that you’re getting should have all aspects of data security covered. For physical security, the physical location should be well guarded, 24/5 by capable personnel. For virtual security, it is vital to have several walls of security in place, to avoid any type of data breach. If your target data center is only good in one aspect of security, you’re better off considering someone else for your data center needs.
Wrapping Up
If you wish to take your business further but you’re limited by your capacity to handle data, you should already consider getting a data center. If an in-house solution is still financially out of reach, consider getting a hosted data service. With the list above, ensure that your data center is reliable, secure, efficient, data redundant, and have the right infrastructure in place.