Determining data center purpose?

Does anyone have any good tips on determining the primary purpose for a proposed data center? For example, what steps should you take to determine whether a data center should be data driven, security driven, needs driven, etc.?

Thanks in advance for any input...

Are you looking to choose a datacenter or build a datacenter?. let me see what I can do it for you.

Well, either is a possibility. For the early planning/strategy stages, I'm trying to assemble the best methods for looking at the big picture to determine what kind of data center would work best. For example, is it best to look at the overall company structure and strategy first, or consider the data first?

[whcdavid]

Hi,

Are you looking datacenter in specific area?. There are lots of reputable companies out there to get space. There are many things you should consider when you choose datacenter.

You have to consider many factors.

Space / Location :
Connectivity Providers :
Bandwidth Cost :
Power Delivery/ UPS
Airconditioning / Fire Control Equipment /Security .
Hardware / Internal Network
Infrastructure
Design & Management
Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity

Do you need more info on it?. Do you need any specific help?

Thank You
David.K

[SiteSouth]

You also need to verify such items as:

1. Is the DC manned 24/7.
2. Do you have 24/7 access or is it limited access.
3. Do they offer remote hands, if so, what is the cost.
4. Do they offer add on services such as firewall management, spam/virus filtering, backup services.
5. Do they offer add on products such as Cpanel or other CPs.
6. How is support handled, phone, support desk only, email.
7. How is your equipment segregated from others equipment.
8. Do they have emergency spares such as hard drives, NIC cards that you can use or get at 3:00 AM on a Sunday morning when all the stores are closed.

Thank you both for your input. I'm actually looking at things at a step before actually choosing a datacenter. In other words, how do you go about determining what *type* of datacenter would work best for your data? Does this depend on your data itself, your business practices, a combination of both, etc. ?

[whcdavid]

As you can see many factors are there to choose datacenter. If I understand correctly you looking for reliable network right?. Datacenter shoud have good quality backbone providers, such as level(3), Savis, etc........... .


You better choose few datacenters ask those questions which we posted here. I hope this might help you a bit.


Good luck in finding datacenter.


Thank You
David.K