Colocation Facility

Choosing a colocation facility for your Internet data center needs can seem a daunting task when you first start to do your research and investigation.  Thankfully there are some great step by step guides to help us.  The most important things are basic and include the following steps to deciding and choosing what can be a mission critical decision for your company.

1. Identify Your Colocation Needs
Most companies are choosing a colocation facility for, first and foremost, Reliable Colocation Uptime.  Since this is important for all companies you can check the redundancy that the facility features.  Some very important questions to check are:  

A) What are the size of the facilities Internet network connections? (how many megabits each? OC192 is best as these are 10,000Mbps each)

B) How many Internet backbones does the facility connect to? (they should connect to over 100)  

C) How long has the company been in business?  (make sure they have been in business over 7 - 10 years to show a reliable history)  

D) Are the AC systems redundant in each colocation suite?  (since AC systems are a very large colocation facility cost, many will say they have redundant AC systems for the building or the facility, but not for each suite.  Make sure your suite has redundant AC systems.)  

E) Does the colocation facility have network staff onsite 24/7? (some colocation facilities will say they have staff onsite 24/7 but they may just be referring to security guards, who are not there or able to help you with your Internet needs should a remote hands need arise)  

F) Does the colocation facility include 24/7 On-Site Remote Hands services?  (some colocation facilities offer 24/7 on-call Remote Hands and they charge an extra fee for this.  This means that someone has to get your call, get up out of bed, etc and drive to the facility - all of this can be costly if your equipment is down.) 

G) Cost.  - Does the colocation service charge extra for services such as ip addresses, cross connects and Remote Hands.  (many colocation providers charge a monthly fee as much as $350/month per cross connect and others charge a monthly fee for ip addresses.  Find one that includes these services in your total bundle of services at a rate that meets your needs.)  Also along the lines of cost - many colocation providers will charge as much as $100 per megabit even for 100Mbps which would be $10,000/month while others that are also Class A have wholesale specials as low as $10 - $20/Mbps.  Check for all the amenities, and price, but watch that you don't get so distracted by price that you miss out on an important service that you need.

H) Reliability.  There are several colocation providers who are poorly managed and seem to be constantly downsizing and causing customer to have to move from facility to facility as they file for bankruptcy and close facility after facility.  You can be aware of things like this by reading user comments on the colocation ratings and also by reading the Colocation Provider News Sorted By Company.

2. Check Colocation Facility Ratings
Different colocation facilities have different features and may offer and excellent colocation customer friendly environment or others may subject their users to a bad experience.  The ratings can help determine what one should expect.  You can also submit details of your won experience to help guide others in their quest for the best colocation service provider in and Internet data center that make the customer feel like king of their colocation domain. 

3. Check Colocation Facility Amenities
Make sure that you ask each individual question to be sure that the facility offers everything that you need.  In your search, checking with multiple colocation providers across scores of colocation facilities each with different services and features, asking the same questions can seem like it gets tiring, but it is important.  Remember that you only have to go through this process before you set up.  It is worth the time to be sure you will be very happy with the colocation services that you ultimately decide to go with.

4. Select A Colocation Facility With a Good Rating And That Offers the Services That You Need
This is the final step.  Now that you know what you need and you know who offers it and that they have a good standing for a quality colocation service within the community, you can place your order.  There are some good wholesale brokers who can get you a wholesale rate for a direct colocation service.  Double check once again and place your order.