Criteria for having your own DC
 

Instead of paying monthly to use servers in a datacenter i think one should have his own data center if his requirements cross some threshhold limit. What should be the criteria to decide whether one should own his own DC or use other's?

I think the criteria should be the size of the organization, and the type of data it deals with. If it's a big corporation then it could very well setup its own data center.

I suppose the single biggest point to take into account is financial - this is a business after all!

When the facility you're using (that meets all of your requirements for your business - ie: security, support, service, global reach etc..etc..) becomes more expensive than what it would cost you to run in house once you've written off the capital expenditure of the build then you're onto a winner.

You'll have to consider a large number of factors though - such as staffing, power, cooling, connectivity, management and security.

FOr example, I've worked with businesses that need to have their data centres in different geographic regions. Their annual spend was over $4mil on collocation and bandwidth. Yes, if they could consolidate down into a couple of locations, it would have a great cost saving, but due to the nature of their business they couldn't, so collocation was actually the best fit.

I've also worked on the other end of the scale, where someone was collocating in a single data centre, and were being charged a very large amount which they oculd pull in house for a £500k capex. They already had staff working 24 x 7 and only had to employ a few extra heads to meet the data centre space management aspect.

That's why companies and corporations should always take the advice of an expert, and always question their spending. Is that data center really worth it? Can't I use an in house resource for that? And so on.

Yes that is right, that is why there are consultants that are qualified in determining what you needs might be in the future and what they are now, where the organization might be headed and if it is necessary. No one wants to spend money they do not need too and if you do you have no clue about business.

Thanks guys for your tips and advices, I really agree with Schumie, we all start business for earning, so its better to keep our eye on financial aspects from the beginning.