When your business grows, so does your need for increased data. Keeping data storage and maintenance in-house is an expense that many organizations cannot afford.
Taking your data storage to an external agency has become a sensible choice, but choosing a secure, safe location requires a high level of due diligence.
A lot of organizations decide to keep their computing services in the same place as the offices that house their day-to-day operations, but a data center can be a good option to consider as the structure is dedicated to large-scale data processing and handling 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
Here are features to pay attention to when selecting the right data center for your business:
Data Redundancy
You want to ensure that the redundancy of your data storage can be guaranteed by the data center if there is an emergency or as part of your disaster recovery plan. Be sure to question the data center staff to make sure that all failure scenarios have been considered when planning the layout of the data center.
Data Center Access and Location
Where the center is located in one of the biggest factors that you will need to take into account when choosing the provider. This pulls together many other factors that need to be thought about, such as geological risks, flight paths, and neighboring uses. Having access to an appropriate power source at a reasonable cost is one of the most critical factors, closely follows by the availability of their broadband service.
Because there are more data centers being established all the time, each with a varying service provision and price, the choices grow each year. You can employ a data center broker to help find the right center for your business.
Data Center Efficiency and Reliability
The backup of power is crucial for the effectiveness of the data center and it would be helpful for you to understand how the backup is configured to your servers. You want to ensure that the reliability of the data center is a minimum of 99.95% to protect the function of your business. This should be supported with smooth access to your data for all operations teams.
The cost of electrical power is normally the highest consideration in pricing at the data center. The price paid by the center will be impacted by the power source, the regulatory environment, the size of the facility, and the rate concessions. For the higher-level centers, the battery, generators, and redundant power grids are also factors in the price structure.
Scalability
After you decide on a data center, you want to make sure that there is scope for growth in your data storage as your business grows. Your ability to access data quickly needs to be able to adapt to storage growth. Ask the center whether they have plans for future expansion and will provide you with the extra resources needed at short notice.
Data Security
Security of your data will be crucial as you need to make sure that both the physical and virtual security is watertight. For this reason, we would recommend that you make a personal visit to assess the security protocols in person.
