Choosing the Right Data Center
Warning: constant() [function.constant]: Couldn't find constant TT_TH8US_LEN in /home/swiftcurrent/theswiftcurrent.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this.php on line 1821
Warning: constant() [function.constant]: Couldn't find constant TT_TH8US_LEN in /home/swiftcurrent/theswiftcurrent.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this.php on line 1821
Warning: constant() [function.constant]: Couldn't find constant TT_TH8US_LEN in /home/swiftcurrent/theswiftcurrent.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this.php on line 1821
Warning: constant() [function.constant]: Couldn't find constant TT_TH8US_LEN in /home/swiftcurrent/theswiftcurrent.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this.php on line 1821
Warning: constant() [function.constant]: Couldn't find constant TT_TH8US_LEN in /home/swiftcurrent/theswiftcurrent.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this.php on line 1821
I had a phone call this morning with one of our new customers who will be hosting one of his servers using VMware. BroadRiver‘s general manager Kevin Beebe and I were on the call and we answered his questions about some logistics concerning accessing his servers from his desktop in Birmingham to our data center in Atlanta.
Toward the end of the call, he expressed his excitement about working with us due in large part to the fact that we were a perfect fit for his company. He had toured all three of our data centers and met with one of our engineers, our accounts receivable representative, and several other members of our staff. I asked him to tell me a little more about what he meant by “perfect fit” since he had also toured several other data centers in the Atlanta area before picking BroadRiver.
He said the smaller data centers seemed to “not know what they were doing” and the larger ones made him feel like they would be “completely lost” if he hosted with them. Needless to say, Kevin and I were both pleased to hear this kind of feedback.
BroadRiver has certainly grown over the years but we’ve been striving lately to maintain a balance between the approachability of a small company without comprimising expertise or responsiveness, while possessing the latest technology to keep at our disposal. It seems our new customer noticed this and it was a key decision making point for him.
If it sounds like I’m tooting my (and BroadRiver’s) own horn in some kind of shameless way then I’m ok with that and I won’t apologize for being proud of my company. However, in light of today’s conversation I do want to focus on three factors (and there are many more) I believe should influence any company’s choice in which data center to use whether it be for colocation or virtualization.
1) Knowledeable staff. Friendliness is great and but it’s not everything. Do the salespeople you would be working with have enough of a working knowledge of the technology involved to answer most questions and at least point you in the right direction for more escalated details? When you get escalated to someone else are you talking to people who are familiar with your company’s goals and timelines? Are they smart enough to decipher problems and respond quickly to your needs? Are they certified in all the appropriate fields for the products and services you’ll be employing from them? I would ask these questions as I met with the staff that would be handling any of my company’s crucial data before making a decision.
2) Are the facilities secure yet easy for a customer to access? For example, our data centers have at least two layers of 
entrance security: key fob entry and a biometric scanner. Customers can easily get into work on their servers but no one else but they and our staff can. I would take careful note of what is put into place to protect my servers if I chose to work with one data center over another. Also a comfortable, helpful, well connected workspace and/or a crash cart to use within the data center, would assure me that the data center is a place I can not only access my equipment but work on site with everything I need.
3) Does the data center fit my “size”? Data centers are not “one size fits all”. We try to strike the balance of being easy enough for a small company to feel comfortable working with us but advanced and large enough for the bigger companies to feel just as secure with entrusting their servers in our facilities. Admittedly, it’s a hard balance to strike but whichever data center you choose is going to have to appeal to you from this standpoint as well. Do the facilities and the company’s personnel together tell you that you’ll be lost in some giant “warehouse” of servers? On the other hand, does it seem like the first rain storm or tornado will blow the lid off the data center? Does the staff seem ill equipped or ready at a moment’s notice to respond to your expansion or critical needs?
Of course I hope you’ll consider BroadRiver for colocation or virtualization solutions but more than anything I hope this post gives you some good food for thought no matter which data center you choose to work with.
I’d love to hear your input though. What affects your decision making when choosing a server hosting environment?
Category: Colocation, Virtualization
