How do you choose your data center?

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Always interesting to know if they run 'lights out' ever, aka hooking up all the servers to some sort of remote access, DRAC, iLO, IMPI. If they do and then offer it to you, it can cut down on a LOT of remote hands fees if you have the ability to send your servers remote reboots, or hop on and make simple adjustments yourself.
 
HostLeet said:
Some things to consider when looking at potential Data Centers to house your servers...

1. Facility Location

2. IT & Network Infrastructure

3. On-site Security & Surveillance

4. Power & Backup Generators

5. Uptime Record + Company Reputation

6. IT Staff & Personnel

7. Fire Suppression & Cooling

8. Contracts/SLA's/TOS's

There are many more things to consider but these will get you started. 😉
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I think the price is important too🙂
 
We chose ours solely based on user reviews in forums such as these. Price was important as well, and we wanted specifically for our server(s) to be located in North America, so that narrowed down our choices as well.

I don't want to shamelessly plug who we use, since I don't see others doing that. 🙂 But those are at least the stipulations we had in place when doing our search.
 
There are numerous things to consider before choosing a Data Center. If you look at just the basic part then first thing would be the location of the DC.

Once you finalize the DC, look for a DC that has SSAE16 TYPE II or SAS70 TYPE II certified with an N+1 power and cooling infrastructure in place. This will cover most/all of the infrastructure requirements.

Last but not the least the service provider with excellent support and availability is a must. Go with a provider who is experience and in business for atleast 10+ years.
 
#1 Support - If there is a crisis or a critical server offline, I want to know it can be resolved ASAP. Many datacenters could care less about their customers, and leave them hanging offline for hours and hours.

#2 Network - Connectivity, DDOS, power issues, and everything else under the sun can take a server offline. I want to know that they have redundancy in place for multiple services and a quality network provider. And have onsite support 24/7/365, which ties into #1.

#3 Price - The price HAS to have value as a result of #1 and #2. You get what you pay for!
 
I think it depends on your business strategy. For example, if you live in New York and you are aiming at local clients, you won't want to be hosting servers in Mexico or anywhere in the south, so you can narrow down your search by location.

Also, bandwidth carriers is a big decision maker. You might have great pricing, great location, but what if the datacenter has cheap and non-stable carriers?

You want to check out the support and the features that the facility offers. For instance, do they have fast proactive support when one of your servers goes down? How long do you need to wait for an OS reload? Can you "self service" your account and servers (re-install, set DNS, reboot etc).

I would also be looking at other things too, ping rates from different locations, test files, public network status (if available), reviews etc.
 
You need to consider various things while selecting Datacenter. But amongst them price, connectivity, power back, security, disaster recovery policy, support and location are major factors to be considered while selecting Datacenter for web hosting.
 
Reviews, bad review, do not consider.

Cost and Maintenance. It is should be very transparent.

Uptime, staff and support. You can end up sending NOC emails almost everyday, better to have good reply to them also.
 
These are all great reasons. You might add:

1. Redundant network hardware (borders, core routers...)
2. Do they reside on a protected power grid (e.g. exempt from rolling blackouts)?
 
When you choose a data center, I would suggest to consider below information.

1. Location

2. Flexibility and Expansion Capability (Scalability)

3. Reliability

4. Budget

5. Service Level Agreement Negotiation

6. Determine Space and Power Requirements For Colocation Space

7. Data Center Support
 
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Location, uptime, network stability, and reviews are mostly what I look at when looking for a data center. Everything starts from the data center and if the data center is a disaster then gg
 
crystallize said:
1. Location

2. Flexibility and Expansion Capability (Scalability)

3. Reliability

4. Budget

5. Service Level Agreement Negotiation

6. Determine Space and Power Requirements For Colocation Space

7. Data Center Support
Click to expand...

That pretty much sums it up for me. Almost in the same order.
 
There are a range of variables to consider and similar to what others have listed I would say these are some of the key areas to identify.

- Network Infrastructure
- Location of DC
- Surveillance infrastructure and the Onsite Security
- Power Redundancy
- IT Support & Customer Service
- Fire Suppression & Cooling
- Costs
 
The only thing i usely think about when choosing a data center is that the price is vary cheap as i have way too low margins to consider any thing ease.
 
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